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40p EVERY WEEK * DEC 22 1984 -No 92 



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MMRNING 















































It's Christmas Night The log of 
the Conqueror crackles in the 
grate. Old Uncle Clive has 
crashed after one sherry too 
many, and cousin Jack from 
America is flicking acorns at 
his nose. A new star rises in the 
east.. .what can it be? Yes, the 
winners of the PCN Golden 
Turkey Awards of 1984! 


Monitor 

Lynx starts on the 
comeback trail 


OUTPUT 


Add 3D line drawings to your repertoire of Beeb graphics 
programs with these annotated routines. 


More kudos to your QDOS with some hints on making better use 
of headers on the QL. 


COMMODORE poker 1 

Take on your 64 at cards with this version of Poker Solitaire. 


Animated SPECTRUM 20 

You can store enough frames to produce some spectacular 
animated sequences with machine code and Basic routines. 
AMSTRAD stretch 22 

Print double height characters on the screen in your games or in 
more serious applications._ 


ATARI attraction 24 

Tap in this game and learn a bit more about some aspects of two 
programming features. 


HARDWARE 


Whether you buy the kit or the ready-built version, the Cortex 2 
out-benchmarks the competition. However, the machine is still 
something of a challenge to take on, says Brendin Lewis. 


PERIPHERALS 


SHINWA s wrt chability 41 

The CPA-80 printer has a range of features that would grace a 
more expensive machine. 


SOFTWARE 


64 sound master 


Music Master turns your computer into an electronic music 
synthesiser and teaches you about music into the bargain. 


REGULARS 


Lynx — fresh tracks discov¬ 
ered, this page; Commodore 
treads the IBM path, page 2; 
Toshiba price cuts set cat 
among pigeons, page 3; Christ¬ 
mas 1984 — the last micro 
boom? page 4. 


PCN Charts 

Which games will be spilling 
out of the nation’s Christmas 
stockings? 


Random Access 7 

Hot views from our readers 


Solve your programming prob¬ 
lems by consulting our experts. 


PON's readers make friends 
and influence people when they 
send in their hints and tips. The 
£10 reward can't come amiss 
either. 


On the eighth day of Christmas 
why not get stuck into an 
adventure? 


Pre-Christmas bargains. 

Quit Datelines 52 

PCN signs off for this year, and 
looks forward to the next. 


Lynx micros are on the come¬ 
back trail. 

A Cambridge company called 
Anston Technology has made a 
successful bid for the rights to 
the machines as well as the 
assets of the failed Computers 
Ltd. 

According to an Anston press 
release, the company has en¬ 
gaged Dick Greenwood, former 
chairman of Camputers, to 
assist with the introduction of 
the Lynx into its business 
plans'. 

’My purpose is to ensure that 
the Lynx continues,’ he said. 
T’m currently tying up loose 
ends from a technical and pro- 
duction point of view.’ 



said the telephone operator. 

Further inquires with well 
placed industry sources turned 
up a second Cambridge num¬ 
ber. A request to speak to Alex 
Chapman, Anston director, re¬ 
vealed that he was in Newport, 
Gwent, South Wales. 

But surely someone else 
could help? ’Sorry, nobody else 
knows anything about it. And 
I’m his right-hand man,’ a voice 
said. 

Chapman is already familiar 
with the Lynx. Another of his 
companies. Braefleld Chap¬ 
man. was a small sub-contrac¬ 
tor used by Camputers to carry 
out assembly and repair work. 

Greenwood said that the tele- 



Lynx: hat K come off the endangered species list? 


But the prospect of future 
support for the Lynx is lost in a 
wintry fog. 

Greenwood said it would be a 
month or so before detailed 
plans are finalised and 
attempts to contact Anston 
Technology last week floun¬ 
dered when the number quoted 
in its historic press release 
turned out to be unobtainable. 

The number is temporarily 
unavailable as the result of an 
agreement between the sub¬ 
scriber and British Telecom,’ 


phone number was out of action 
because of a fault on the line. 

Anston isestablishingatech- 
nical back-up facility for ex¬ 
isting users. Also, the Lynx 96, 
128. disk drives, peripherals 
and software will be made 
available. For further details 
you could try ringing 0223- 
62026. 

The message for existing 
Lynx users is hang on in there. 
We will pass on further news as 
soon as we can lay our hands on 



PCN DECEMBER221984 




Open season again as 
Lynx hits the fairway 

Well, we got it wrong last week, 
predicting that the Dragon 
would be the next micro to come 
off the sick list. It's been beaten 
to it by the late Camputers 
Lynx. 

There's been no news of the 
Lynx for several months, which 
is stretching two minutes' si¬ 
lence —but it gives the I ie to the 
old saying that no news is good 
news. The Lynx disappeared 
virtually without trace. Lynx 
owners didn’t even have the 
comfort of knowing that some¬ 
body, somewhere, cared for 
their micro. Even the Jupiter 
Ace found a friend in need, and 
other micros have found a safe 
haven in Holland and Spain. 

That the Lynx may stage a 
recovery is good enough news in 
itself, but most encouraging is 
the way that its resurrectiqn 
runs straight across the main 
trend of the micro industry. 

This is the trend that would 
have you believe micros are 
going to become progressively 
more useful, on the grounds 
that as games machines they 
have a limited life expectancy 
It all sounds very dull. Fine and 
dandy, of course, if the chal¬ 
lenge of rigging up a ZX81 to 
control the microclimate in 
your window-box is irresistible; 
but hardly a match for the 
excitement of a good game 

The Lynx was one of those 
indeterminate systems that 
didn’t know whether it was a 
home micro or a business sys¬ 
tem. Towards the end of its life, 
with increased memory and 
disk attachments, it was begin¬ 
ning to make up its mind in the 
direction ofbusiness. Perhaps it 
would be unseemly to gloat and 
say this development was the 
death of it. Besides, it was never 
a runaway success as a home 
micro. But it didn't go under 
until it turned serious . . . 

Will the Lynx’s Lazarus act 
mark a rejection of the new 
wave and a return to the 
traditional values of home com¬ 
puting— blood, gore, lightning 
reflexes and preferably a 
warped mind? Will it fire a 
broadside at the old sobre-sides 


who want to clean up? (Whether 
it’s home microcomputing they 
want to clean up, or whether 
they just want to clean up 
generally isn’t yet clear.) 

It isasking too much to expect 
the Lynx to shoulder the burden 
alone. In its last days it was 
barely capable of shouldering a 
sack of horse-feathers, let alone 
the standard of the home micro 
enthusiasts. If certain other 
micros — the Texas Instru¬ 
ments 994A, for example, or 
the J upiter Ace — were to come 
out of retirement it might be 
possible to start thinking about 
a veterans’ eleven to take the 
field against the new breed 
represented by the QL, the 
Commodore Plu&(4, and the 
Sharp MZ800, where home use 
isdefinitely a secondary consid¬ 
eration. The QL is a particular¬ 
ly regrettable case; not because 
there’s anything wrong with it, 
of course, but for the fact that it 
comes from the company that 
put home micros on the map in 
this country, a company whose 
last new home micro was the 
Spectrum. The Spectrum Plus 
is a side-show; it's the QL that 
shows which way the wind is 
blowing. 

TI 99/4A fans will say their 
micro is still supported if you 
know where to look, and J upiter 
Ace die-hards might argue the 
same case. But the prospects for 
the Lynx — and the Dragon, for 
that matter — are on a different 
level on the Bobby Robeon Scale 
of Optimism. The Lynx may yet 
get a result. 

Of course there never was 
much of a software industry 
where Lynx games were con¬ 
cerned. But the point is that 
somebody thinks the machine 
can still sell, against competi¬ 
tion so well established that the 
act of faith takes your breath 
away. 

This being the season of 
goodwill the Lynx could hardly 
be re-launched at a better time. 
If there’s a sympathy vote 
around at this time of year, the 
Lynx deserves it more than 
most. 

If its new proprietors can 
organise themselves quickly 
enough it might even pick up a 
few sales by default, as anxious 
shoppe rsfind the shelvesempty 
of Sinclair Plusses and C16 
starter packs but healthily 
stocked with Lynxes. 

It could turn out that the 
Lynx’s appeal will be mainly 
nostalgic. It recalls a style of 
micro that seems to be passing 
out of fashion (and a kind of 
manufacturer that seems to 
have passed out). 

But if it makes a successful 
comeback, the reasons won’t be 
particularly important to any¬ 
body out there who still has one 
tucked away at the back of a 
cupboard. 


^ftoNITOR 


Commodore lines up 
IBM broadside 

Commodore is to launch a 
desktop IBM compatible 
machine in spring, 1985. The 
company describes the 
machine, thought to be a de¬ 
velopment of the Bytec Hype¬ 
rion, as the 'opening gambit' in 
an offensive on the business 
computing market. 

Commodore declined to dis¬ 
cuss hardware specifications or 
pricing, but said the new 
machine would be previewed at 
the Which Computer? show on 
January 15, and would be 
launched later, possibly in 
March 

The company’s new market¬ 
ing manager, David Gerrard, 
said the newcomer was part of 
'an evolving, long-term 
strategy' that should take the 
company back into its tradi¬ 
tional business market. 

Gerrard admitted that Com¬ 
modore's concentration on 
home computers in the last 18 
months had meant a shift away 
from business users. 

The launch arises from two 
deals that Commodore made 
earlier this year. The first was a 
licensing agreement with 
Bytec-Comterm, maker of the 
Hyperion. Ajile portable — one 
of the best IBM-compatible 
portables. The machine was 
displayed in Commodore livery 
at the Hanover Fair in April. 

The second deal was an 
arrangement with chip-maker 
Intel that allowed Commodore 
to produce the IBM PC’s proces¬ 
sor, the 8086. 

After Hanover, the portable 
machine sank without trace 
and as manufacturers of port¬ 
ables and IBM compete began 
to fold, speculation mounted 
that Commodore would have to 
upgrade the Bytec hardware 
significantly. It now appears 
that the speculation has been 
borne out. 

A second business machine 
was shown at Hanover, a multi¬ 
user system based on the Z8000 


processor. So far that has been 
equally conspicuous by ita abs¬ 
ence. 


Help on the way 

Spurred into action by a reader’s 
letter (Random Access, issue 91) we 
have contacted Dealer Deals and 
sorted out with them the matter of 
the wayward Magarule perspex 
magnifying rulers. 

Mark Simon of Dealer Deals has 
promised a speedier turn-round in 
future. ‘We have hundreds in stock,’ 
he said. 

So stay glued to your letter box, Mr 
Johnstone of Colchester, a ruler is on 
its way to you through the post 


Hewlett-Packard 
pinches Unix lead 

Hewlett-Packard is in line to be 
the first with a Unix portable. 

According to reports from the 
US, HP is planning to launch 
early in the new year a luggable 
micro weighing under 25lbs 
that will run the Unix operat¬ 
ing system. 

Currently codenamed the 
Pisces, it is said to cost $5,000 
and will use the 68010 chip, 
512K of RAM. a 120 column 24 
line electroluminescent screen, 
a pair of 3.5in disk drives and a 
built-in ink-jet printer. 

The machine has already 
been shown to market research 
firmsand industry insiders who 
have commented favourably on 
it. According to those who have 
seen it, around 50 software 
packages will be available at 

If the final product matches 
the rumoured specification and 
price it will put HP in the lead to 
carve out a large market share 
as the kind of facilities on offer 
are normally only available on 
machines costing around twice 
the price. 

Hewlett-Packard in the UK 
refused to comment on the 
existence of the micro on the 
grounds that it is not its policy 
to pre-announce products._ 



THE BEAST BITES BACK — Extending its Beasty family, Commotion’s 
(01-804 13781 latest device is an infra-red remote control system. The 
infra-red Beasty comes with a manual and software for under £50 and is 
available for the BBC. Spectrum and Commodore 64. With its eight-channel 
interface the device is compatible with the Beasty arm and Mobile base 
(issue 75) and will control up to eight servo motors to a range of six metres. 
You can see the remote control system in action at the High Technology and 
Education Show, Barbican Centre, London, from January 23 to 26. 


PCN DECEMBER 221984 



Monitor 


w 


Toshiba drops price 
of MSX package 

Toshiba has upped the stakes in 
the battle for control of the UK 
MSX market with a £40 price- 
cut, making its HX-10 machine 
one of the cheapest. 

The company has also ex¬ 
tended its three year guarantee 
offer < longer than many people 
own a micro) until March 31. 

Add to this the machine's 
bundled software and the 
Toshiba looks just about the 
best MSX deal this Christmas, 
with only the Goldstar under¬ 
cutting it (by £10), and the 
Spectravideo rivalling it with 
slightly enhanced features. 

No other MSX manufacturer 
seemed to be responding to the 
Toshiba price-cut as PCN went 
to press, but some outlets are 
promising to cut Sony and 
Sanyo prices by £60 soon after 
Christmas. Equally, the lesser 
known manufacturers will 
have to try to maintain a price 
differential to stop customers 
flocking to famous names such 
as Sony and Toshiba who, as far 
as customers are concerned, 
have a good track record in 
electronics. 

Aside from price competition 
among MSX companies, the 
machines also face stiff com¬ 
petition this Christmas from 
Commodore. Sinclair and 
Atari, and it’s difficult to see 
how sales can be anything other 
than disappointing while the 
machines remain above the 
£200 mark. 

The JVC is among the pricier 
machines, and has so far sold 


only a few thousand. Toshiba 
has certainly sold more, but the 
company was unable to say how 
many. Most of the manufactur¬ 
ers haven’t been in the country 
long enough for their figures to 
have any great significance. 

But the limited impact of 
MSX so far doesn't seem to be 
discouraging the companies. 
The Mitsubishi is now in the 
UK at £245 for the 3‘2K version 
or £299 for 64K, although its 
distribution isn't particularly 
wide at the moment. Kuma, 
which produces a number of 
books and add-ons for MSX 
machines, says it has already 
had a fair number of enquiries 
from Mitsubishi owners. This 
may be because customers view 
the 32K version as a cheap 
alternative. 

Panasonic's machine should 
also be available by Christmas, 
while Philips will probably sell 
its MSX machine in the UK 
early next year. Considering 
the number of companies now 
involved it's difficult to visual¬ 
ise the machines staying at 
their current price level for 
long. 

If prices in Japan are any¬ 
thing to go by there’s certainly 
scope for cuts. Bottom of the 
market in the landofMSX is the 
Casio, which is going for £80- 
£90, and assuming the com¬ 
pany is makings profit on thisit 
shouldn’t be beyond the wit of 
the manufacturers to sell MSX 
for around £150 here. This is a 
common price forecast inside 
the MSX fraternity, but its 
timing is another matter 
altogether. 


JEW FROM THE US 


moves a week. Some players are 
active in many games, from the 
live fury of MegaWars to the 
quieter role-playing games. 
There is even a monthly maga¬ 
zine, Computer Gaming World, 
devoted to multi-player games. 

Watching all this with con¬ 
siderable interest are the phone 
companies, the makers of mod¬ 
ems, and business analysts. 

Doorosters see the rapidly 
expanding volume of personal 
computer communications over 
phone lines as producing a 
monumental headache very 
soon. The average phone call 
lasts four or five minutes, but 
the average data link occupies 
25 minutes. Optimists argue 
that the phone companies will 
be able to employ packet¬ 
switching techniques, and that 
more local phone companies 
will step up their fibre-optic 
installation plans. There are 
already 1.5 light seconds of 
fibre-optic links in the US and 
it's expanding rapidly. 

If the phone companies don’t 
take care of the business, they 
could lose it to cable TV com¬ 
panies. These are in a slump as 
the US has become saturated 
with television choices. Many 
big corporations lost big bucks 
in the cable market in the last 
year. 

A boom in multi-player 
games using cable networks as 
a cheap alternative would give 
the cable companies a much- 
needed boost. 

Another pointer to the future 
in multi-player games lies in 
the introduction of new high¬ 
speed dial-up modems. Several 
2,400 baud models were on 
show at Comdex in November, 
priced between $750 and 
$1,500. 

The current crop of games are 
not strong on graphics. Indeed, 
even a black and white full 
screen graphic with only two 
bits per pixel takes a 1,200 baud 
modem four minutes to trans¬ 
mit. (Full colour graphics 
would take half an hour or more 
at 1,200. 

Since most players in to¬ 
day’s games are still using 300 
baud, the limitations are se¬ 
vere, however, while a 300 baud 
modem takes 3.2 hours to down¬ 
load a floppy disk, a 2,400 
modem needs only 24 minutes, 
and a 9,600 unit would have 
that down to six minutes 

Since a lot of companies are 
staggering under heavy phone 
charges due to the use of 300 
baud devices, there exists a 
strong incentive to upgrade to 
2,400 That in turn will bring 
down the cost of new modems 
and make them an attractive 
proposition to the Dorsai and 
their chums; at which point live 
multi-player games could blos¬ 
som with the same graphics 
power as today’s games on 


Why MegaWars has 
Santa all wrapped up 

If Santa Claus fails to show up 
this year, don’t worry, it’s no¬ 
thing to do with you. He's too 
deep in MegaWars III combat to 
come to his sleigh, along with 
thousands of other mythical 
folks, like Muad-Dib, Beowulf 
and Mithrandir, in any one of 
hundreds of online, multi¬ 
player computer games that are 
quickly becoming the rage 
among those with micros, mod¬ 
ems and the income to pay the 
phone bill to hook up to the 
mainframe that hosts the 
game. 

The live multi-player games 
are taking on a life on their own 
evolving far beyond their 
Dungeons and Dragons origins. 
MegaWars III is the hottest 
current game and probably the 
most complex. Created by Kes- 
mai Corp for CompuServe (one 
of the biggest online computer 
service networks in the US), 
MegaWars III can have more 
than 1,000 players and each 
game lasts three months. The 
action is spread over 2,000 star 
systems and players vie for 
control of galactic real estate. 

To stay alive in the Mega¬ 
Wars universe players join 
alliances that shift and change 
abruptly during the struggle 
Individual players can win 
prizes but the alliances are the 
real victors. 

Recently a group called the 
Dorsai (after Gordon Dickson's 
science fiction trilogy) pro¬ 
duced a new wrinkle: it's said 
that the Dorsai planted spies in 
the ranks of rival alliances and 
were thus able to win several 
crucial space battles As a 
result the Dorsai have domin¬ 
ated MegaWars III to the point 
where many other players are 
getting fed up. 

The Dorsai then announced 
that it was breaking up, but 
now rumours abound that 
they’ve simply reformed under 
a new name — the Elite — and 
s the current game goes 
Dorsai will re-appear to 
trounce their rivals once again. 

Multi-player games are an 
expensive habit: registration 
with CompuServe costs $40 and 
prime time play costs $12.50 an 
hour at 300 baud, not to men¬ 
tion the phone bills. Less expen¬ 
sive are the role-playing fan¬ 
tasy games that require a 
player to make only a couple of 


PCN DECEMBER221984 


















ONITOR 


Mastertromc, pioneer of £1.99 
games, is now offering adven¬ 
tures at the knock-down price of 
£2.99. Master Adventurer (01- 
580 8418), is the name of the 
new games label that will 
produce the pocket-money soft¬ 
ware packages — the first of 
which will be Se-Kaa of Assiah 
for the Spectrum and 64. Other 
adventures in the pipeline are 
Volcanic Dungeon and Black 
Crystal. 


Donald Duck sounds from the 
Spectrum are on offer from the 
Digital Sound Sampler from 
Datel Electronics <0782- 
273815). For £49.95 the device 
plugs into the Spectrum's user 
port and records any sound 
digitally into the machine’s 
memory. The captured sound 
can then be played back in 
limitless variations. 


Let your Beeb Lake the strain 
with a weekend break to Corn¬ 
wall. Arm in arm with your 
BBC you can stay at the Three 
Rooms Hotel, for a couple of 
days and brush shoulders with 
other BBC users. The weekend 
trips have been organised by 
Micro-Aid (0209-831274) with 
dates in spring and autumn, 
1985. 


The 4,000-year-old Chinese game 
called Go is now available for 
£9.95 for the BBC and Electron 
It comes from Games Workshop 
<01-965 3713), which has Com¬ 
modore 64 and Spectrum ver¬ 
sions in the pipeline. 

Fruity Frank is Kuma's latest 
arcade game for the Amstrad 
CPC-464 at £6.95. Trying to 
pick his fruit crop, Frank has to 
avoid marauding monsters that 
get in his way 


A floppy disk drive for the Sharp 
PC 5000 is up for grabs. Costing 
£516, the CE-513F unit is a 
double-sided, double-density 
device with 360K of storage. 
The drive uses 3.5in disks, 
called CE-120Fs and is avail¬ 
able at £69 for a pack of ten. 

The Olivetti M24 computer is now 
available with integral 5.25in 
quad-density diskette drives — 
providing 720K formatted 
capacity per drive. There are 
three new models incorporat¬ 
ing the new drives costing from 
£1,355 to £3,137. 

Calpac is setting up a hotline to 
advise harrassed parents on 
what there is in the education 
line for Sinclair, Commodore 
and Acorn micros this Christ¬ 
mas. Although a supplier itself, 
it will aim to be impartial. 

The number to call is 04867- 
2584, between 9am and 9pm. 



A not so merry micro 
Christmas for shops 

Christmas is coming, and the 
rumour is that the goose that 
laid the golden egg is about to 
get the chop. 

There have been whispers 
that this could be the last 
bumperChristmas for the home 
micro. We put on our most sobre 
funeral clothes and spoke to a 
cross-section of retailers to see 
whether they’re crying all the 
way to the bank. 

T think this may be the last 
Christmas in which computers 
will be sold in vast quantities as 


o pei 

als — the number of printers 
and monitors we’ve sold has 
shot up.' 

In the past, Christmas has 
been a difficult time for manu¬ 
facturers to get their supply act 
together. As a result some 
people ended up buying a com¬ 
puter because it was the only 
one left on the shelf. 

The problem has still not 
been resolved. Both Boots and 
WH Smith grumbled about 
supply problems with the Spec¬ 
trum Plus and Commodore 16. 
Greengrass said stoically: 
'Some manufacturers were late 
getting their machines out.' 


) 1 - 


Sale of the century? Dixons lines tkem up for your inspection. 

Litvin said: 'It rather amuses 
me that manufacturers say that 


presents, which implies their 
use as games machines,’ said 
Michael Litvin of Computers of 
Wigmore St in London's West 
End. ButDaveGilbert, market¬ 
ing manager of Dixons, dis¬ 
agreed: ’We are not experienc¬ 
ing the demise of home compu¬ 
ters.’ 

Others held views some¬ 
where in between these two. 
WH Smith’s spokeswoman Jen¬ 
ny Wallace reported: 'Sales are 
going quite well in all areas,' 
but Boots computer group man¬ 
ager John Greengrass was 
almost reaching for the 
Kleenex: 'We’re a bit dis¬ 
appointed with the level of 
business — it’s a late 
Christmas.’ 

His comment will have the 
software suppliers nodding in 
agreement. Their sales, accord¬ 
ing to one software company, 
didn’t start to take off until last 
week. 

If you're buying later, you’re 
also spending in different direc¬ 
tions. Of the shops we spoke to, 
only Woolworth said that mic¬ 
ros alone would account for 
most of their sales this year. 
The idea of the starter pack has 
caught on, and chains like 
Dixons are extending it with 
their own packaged offerings. 

Litvin, despite his gloomy 
forecasts about home micros, 
has sales that are 35 percent up 
on last year. Part is due to a 
change of premises, he says, 
and part to a change in buying 
patterns: Td say 50 per cent of 


there are no shortages. The 
Spectrum Plus is in very short 
supply, Pluses aren't that 
abundant and C16s I'm not 
keeping. There isn’t much soft¬ 
ware for the C16.’ 

Even so. the shops have a 
slightly wider range of compu¬ 
ters this year, more software 
and a host of add-ons to plug 


With such a variety of opin¬ 
ions about the state of the 
market, there are, as you might 
expect, different ideas about 
how to persuade you to part 
with your money. WH Smith is 
offering credit facilities with 
repayment plans covering 12, 
24 and 36 months. Boots is 
advertising guaranteed’ 

prices, most of which can be 
undercut by a quick scan 
through a micro paper. Dixons, 
as noted, is selling packages. 
Litvin, without the buying pow¬ 
er of a chain, is restricting 
himself to a modest price cut on 
some of the most rel lable sellers 
in the software field. 

'Obviously I can’t remain 
completely uncompetitive.’ he 
said 'But you can’t sell a 
Commodore 64, for example, at 
its recommended retail price 
(£229); you won’t find anybody 
selling it at that price Some are 
down to £183. There’s no way 
I’m going to compete with the 
cowboys who’re in for a quick 
buck because I intend to be here 
for many years to come, offering 
support.’ 


Software — slow on the take-up but gathering speed now. 

When you’ve sorted out the 
contradictions it doesn't look as 


into a computer. What you see 
on the shelves is the survival of 
the fittest — there are no fire 
sales of things like the TI99/4 A 
this time round. 

Opinions on individual sys¬ 
tems varied. Dixons is euphoric 
about the Amstrad. but Litvin 
claims: 'It was hyped up beyond 
recognition; I couldn't sell it.’ 
And on the QL he added: ’With 
respect to Sir Clive, he got his 
marketing wrong. I'd say 75 per 
cent of buyers are using the QL 
at home; I've been surprised 
how many people want it as a 
first machine.’ 


though home computers are on 
their way to any early grave. 
Even though the retailers give 
different accounts of what’s 
happening, all retailers are 
reaping some rewards from 
micro sales. 

But if what some of them are 
saying is anything to go by, the 
tail-end of Christmas into the 
New Yearcouldseeashifttothe 
buying of more add-ons and 
software rather than compu¬ 
ters. and after that a slow down 
in sales of games machines. 


PCN DECEMBER221984 





























As featured on Radio l’s 
Saturday morning Chip Shop. 

GAMES 


TW LW TITLE 

PUBLISHER MACHINE 

PRICE 

1 1 Knight Lore 

Ultimate SP 

£9.95 

1 2 2 Ghost Busters Activision C64 

£9 95 

1 3 7 Elite 

Acomaoff AC 

£15 IK) 

| 4 9 Skooldaze 

MicroSphere SP 

£6 95 

5 10 3D Star Strike Real Time SP. 

£5 95 

6 3 Staff of Karnath Ultimate C64 

£9 95 

7 5 DTs Decathlon Ocean SP. C64 

£690 

8 11 Raid over Moscow US Gold C64 

£9.95 

9 6 Underwurld 

Ultimate SP 

£9.95 

| 10 4 Doomdark's Rev. Beyond SP 

£9 95 

11 12 Pyjamerama 

MicroGen SP, C64 

£6.95 

12 15 Booty 

Firebird SP. C64 

£2 50 

13 — Hunchback II 

Ocean C64 

£7.90 

14 8 Cyclone 

Vortex SP 

£6 95 

15 14 Blue Max 

US Gold C64 

£9 95 

16 18 Match Day 

Ocean SP 

£6.90 

17 17 Select 1 

Comp. Records SP, C64 

£1249 ' 

18 — Manic Miner 

Soil Projects Various 

£695 * 

18 — Combat Lynx 

Durell Martech SP, C64 

£7.95 r 

20 — Airwolf 

Elite SP 

£795 

SPECTRUM 

COMMODORE 

tw mu 

HHCE 

TW TITLE 

PRKsIr 

1 Knight Lore 

£9.95 

1 Ghost Busters 

£9.95 | 

2 Skooldaze 

£6.95 

2 Staff of Karnath 

£9.96 1 

3 31) Star Strike 

£5.95 

3 Raid Over Moscow £9.95 1 

4 Underwurld 

£9.95 

4 Hunchback II 

£7.90 

5 Doomdark's Rev 

£9.95 

5 Blue Max 

£9 95 

6 Pyjamerama 

£6.95 

6 Int.Soccer 

£9 95 

7 Booty 

£2.50 

7 DTs Decathlon 

£6 90 1 

8 DTs Decathlon 

£6.90 

8 Bruce Ix-e 

£9.95 1 

9 Cyclone 

£6.95 

9 Fighter Pilot 

£9 95 

10 Match Day 

£6.90 

10 Select 1 

£12 49 





MM 

* 

Ra 

Si 

BELOW £1,000 

l ABOVE £1,000 II i 

TW MACHINE 

met 

TW MACHINE 

PRICE 

1 CBM 64 

£199 

1 IBM PC XT 

£2.390 

2 Spectrum 

£125 

2 ACT Apricot 

£1.760 | 

3 Electron 

£199 

3 Compaq 

£1,795 

4 Amstrad 

£349 

4 Olivetti M24 

£1,595 

5 BBC B 

£399 

5 Televideo TS1603 

£2,640 

6 Spectrum Plus 

£175 

6 Dec Rainbow 

£2.359 

7 CBM 16 

£140 

7 NCR Dec Mate V 

£1.984 

8 Atari 800XL 

£140 

8 Apple III 

£2.755 

9 MSX (series! 

£275 

9 ACT Sirius 

£2.525 

10 Memotech 

£199 

10 Macintosh 

£1,795 

These charts are compiled from both independent and multiple sources across 
the nation. They reflect what's happening in high streets during the week up 
to December 12. The games chart is updated every week. The prices uuoted _ 

are for the no-frills model and include VAT Information for the top-selling 
micros is culled from retailers and dealers throughout the country and is v 

updated every month. PCN Charts are compiled exclusively for us by RAM C. _ 

who can be contacted on 01 -892 6596. ks 



LOWEST PRICES WORLDWIDE! 

SALE! SALE! 

BEST PRODUCTS - BEST PRICES 

PRINTERS 


M.TALLYMT80 

£155 

KAGAKP810NLQ 

£229 

EPSON RX80 

£179 

EPSON FX80 

£299 

JUKI 6100 

£299 

COLOUR MONITORS 

MICROVITEC STD 

£149 

MICROV1TEC MED 

£199 

MICROVITEC QL 

£185 

KAGAV2 

£215 

KAGAQL VISION 

£215 

DISC DRIVES 

SINGLE 3 INCH 

£99 

SINGLE 100K 

£75 

SINGLE 400K 

£125 

TWIN 800K 

£235 


DISCS SSDD 

£14 

DISCS DSDD 

£18 

BBC/SPECT. DDFS 

£75 

ROMAG ANTIGLARE 

£12 

PRINTER CABLE 

£9 

ALL SOFTWARE 

20% OFF 


JBI 


PCN DECEMBER221984 




















































































































SFftCE MISSION SIMULATION 


SOI IWAHI 


A game of distinction vl / from British Telecom. 

WELLINGTON HOUSI UPPER ST MARTIN'S LANE. 
LONDONWCi’l1901 III 01 379675b/b626 ^ 







t ANDOM ACCESS 

• ^ B1 w lIl rflli/JAHKn 



Share your worfc of pfaise of send us a rocket about PCN. We want to hear your views and feelings 
1 f nth * art * les * * p r int — — and those you feel we ought to. Write to Random Access, Personal 
Computer News, Evelyn House, 62 Oxford Street, London W1A 2HG. You could win £15 for the' 
I_best letter of the week. 


)L prints out — 
io problem 

he letters in the December 8 
sueofPCAT about connecting 
rinters to the QL show up, 
mong other things, the la- 
lentable state of documents- 
on which accompanies most 
mputer products. I have just 
anaged to get Brothers excel- 
nt little M-1009 printer work- 
g with my QL, but it was a 
nstant struggle against in- 
mplete and sometimes wrong 
formation. 

Anyway, here, in the hope 
at it will save others days of 
iguish and gnashing of teeth, 
what I’ve discovered. 

First the cable. Connect the 
r»s as follows and use SER1 on 
e QL: 

PRINTER 


4 BUSY 20 

5 CTS(notused) 5 

6 +12V 6 

No other connections are 
needed. The vital piece of in¬ 
formation missing from the QL 
handbook is that the number¬ 
ing of the serial port pins starts 
at the end opposite the locking 
lever. 

Now on to the dip switches. 

I ve set them up as follows: 

Swttckl: 

1. OFF Busy polarity low 

2. OFF X-Notransmit 

(whateverthat 

means) 

3. ON } 

4. ON } Baud rate9600 

5. ON } 

6. ON Parity ODD 

7. OFF 8bitword 

8. OFF Serial input 

Switch 2: 

1. ON Form length 11 in 

2. ON j 

3. OFF } English character 


1 4. OFF SelectsO 

5. OFF Disables skip 

perforations 

5' 0N Not used, apparently 

6. OFF Auto line feed 
8. ON SLCT1N 

A word of warning, there are 
mistakes in the baud rate table 
of the amended sheets for the 
printer, the ones in the original 
book are correct. Also, no-one 
tells you that it is necesary to 
switch ofT the printer and then 
on again after changing the dip 
switches, otherwise the 
changes will not come into 
effect. 

You should now be able to 
print using the default printer 
driver in Quill and get program 
listings by typing: 

OPEN #3, SICrJ ENTER] 

then 

LIST #s( enter) 

The only problem is that the 
hash and pound signs don’t 
come out properly. 

Stephen Horn, 

Canonmills, Edinburgh. 


'Undulations' 
smoothed over 

I note a change of attitude with 
regard the Amstrad green 
monitor, as raised by Simon 
Williams, (issue 88). I received 
my monitor in July. It was 
prone to bouts of violent un¬ 
dulation. After persisting a 
little, Amstrad agreed to check 
it over, and while monitor was 
in the post to them, I received a 
letter advising that gentle un¬ 
dulations’ were not a fault. 

Well, it arrived back home 
(eventually), and indeed was 
now only prone to bouts of 
’gentle undulation’. So either 
Amstrad has come up with 
some rather effective shielding 
against mains transformers or 
Simon Williams must have 
done as I have done ie, remove 
transformer to outside the cas¬ 
ing! It is now rock steady. 

H Williams, 

Northants. 















EGBERT’S 'ERE *>r the AMSTRAD fSf 


IT’S ER*BERT’S CUBIC DOMA 
FAST - FUNNY ADDICTIVE! 


• Avoid his unwelcome guests. 

• Grab the banana - double you 

M - but watch out for Boris hi 

KOLa will soon want It back! Drop it and 
run. unless you are very brave! 

• Avoid cascading balls and the movir 
don't let Coily the anaconda give 
you a cuddle you'll never forget! 

• Escape when it gets really tough by 
transporter disc or rota hat - but 
only H you've earned one. 

• Multiple screens - additional cube 

colour changing tasks. < 

• It's fun at Level One - but watch out at Level 
Ten!! Packed with fun and excitement. 

ER*BERT cJKS. £5.95 and postage 


MICIOBTTE 

SOFTWARE 



Available NOW at 
some retailers - or by 
last mail order direct 
from Microbyte 
Software 

Dealers: Ask your 
distributor for 
ER-BERT 


KaSSQMOWllCOMf 
24 MS MOT UNt 
06373 Mtt 


The Space game to 
challenge your skill! 

AVAILABLE FOR AMSTRAD 
JANUARY 1985 


















































OUTINE ENQUIRIES 



tot yaw dklto !■« twlrt •wf«probl—7C«i1 <»ddftwtatwkra toby? Hwd tow mmM* 

advice? Why not try writing to the experts? Remember we caiwot reply penomBy, so no _ 

stamped self addressed envelopes, please. Address your questio ns to R outine Enquiries, PCN, 
Evelyn House, 62 Oxford Street, L ondon W1A 2HG. 


Software search 
for Commodore 16 

/^Having just bought a Commod- 
Uon 161 would like to know of any 
software that is available, or forth¬ 
coming. Also, is there ever going to 


socket for ROM software? 

D Hiscoke. 

London. E2. 

A With the exception of Com¬ 
modore's own software, we 
know of only two packages 
which will be available soon. 
They are Flight 015, from Craig 
Communications, a flight 
simulator which will cost £5.95. 
The other is a package called 
Psychodelia from Llamasoft's 
Jeff Minter, best known for his 
Commodore 64 games which 
have attracted a cult following. 

There seems to be 1 ittle doubt 
that software support for the 16 
will arrive, but as with any new 
machine, you should allow at 
least a couple of months before 
you see very much. 

The expansion slot on the 16 
may be able to accommodate 
extra memory although there is 
no mention of this in any of 
Commodore's literature, so you 
shouldn’t count on it. 

To keep you going in the spell 
before the software flood ar¬ 
rives. you could try a couple of 
books. Melbourne House has 
The Commodore 16 Games 
Book, 30 programs for you to 
type in. 

Or you could brush up your 
programming with The Com¬ 
modore 16!Plus 4 Companion, 
published by Sunshine. Both 


The French 
connection 

/V am going to spend some time in 
Uf ranee and will be taking my 
Atmos. I want to avoid linguistic 


No easy way to 
cut out a Currah 

/V have had a 48K Spectrum for 
Utvo years and recently bought a 
Currah speech unit for it Is there any 
way to turn the Currah off while 
leaving it connected so that I can run 


wiry wastes at the back of the 


Also, does it take up less memory 
to define numerical constants as a 
variable store at the start of a Basic 

program then refer to this store, and 

which, if either, is faster for the 
computer to workout? 

Rodney Douglas, 

Nottingham. 

A As far as we know there’s no 
way of switching off the 
Currah without disconnecting 
it. This is the case with quite 
_ number of peripherals, 
although with some you’ll find 
your Spectrum operates as if 
they were disconnected so long 
as you haven’t accessed them 
since you powered up. 

We’re not altogether sure 
what you mean by your memory 
saving wheeze, but there are 
ways to save memory on the 
Spectrum. For example, if 
you're using the number ’a’ int 
pi will save you space. You’ll 
also save by storing numeric 
data as strings, then using val 
to turn it into a number You 
could also poke variable values 
into a safe area in the memory 
at the start of the program then 
peek them when you want to 
use them. 

Or even flasher, peek system 
variables that you know are 
going to hold a certain value at 


French counterpart (or several) to 
PCN! 

Lorraine (Madame!, 

Bodmin, Cornwall. 

A Maisoui.madame. Probably 
the best to look for is an 
all-purpose computer mag cal¬ 
led Votre Ordinateur. We be¬ 
lieve there’s a dedicated Oric 
magazine called L'Oriciel too. 
As for linguistic interference 
we bet you'll get plenty of that 
unless the French have gone so 
far as to insist on Pour . . . 
Prochaine loops._ 


the right time. These last are 
liable to be slower and trickier 
to use. 

Better still why don’t you just 
write shorter programs? 

Making a home into 
a software house 

Al'm thinking about setting up my 
Wown software house. Please 
couM you tell me how to go about this 
from copyright to duplication? 

Stephen Miller, 

Halesworth, Suffolk. 

A You’re going about it the 
F%right way — thinking. First 
advice is to carry on doing that 
for a while longer. (You may 
even consider quitting while 
you're still ahead, i 

Our first reaction is that if 
you have to ask this kind of 
question, you’re far from qual¬ 
ified to set up this kind of 
enterprise. However, for the 
sake of an interesting exercise 
we will take the question 
seriously. 

1 Do you have a product that 
people want to buy: Sure? Good 

2 Contact a tape duplication 
house and get a quote for their 
services. 

3 Consider the following qi 
tion: how many copies should I 
produce? The answer will de¬ 
pend on the machine you’re 
writing for, what you're writing 
(games sell more copies than 
dedicated applications! and 
how many other versions there 
are. This is complicated by a 
further consideration. If you 

C xluce too many copies, you’ll 
ve paid for them without 
getting your money back. If you 

& fcmm 

*5s6 



produce too few, you’ll gain a 
reputation for poor service and 
lose customers. 

4 Having arrived at near 
enough the correct figure, have 
the duplication done 

5 Have cassette artwork de¬ 
signed and printed to the high¬ 
est standard you can afford 
Since you’ll be selling by mail 
order, it doesn’t have to compete 
with the best-sellers but it 
should look reasonably profes¬ 
sional. 

6 Take out a series of adverts in 
several computer magazines. 
This will not cost a great deal. 

7 Wait for the orders to roll in, 
but use the time wisely. Have 
the organisation and cash 
ready to mail off the software. 

8 Start work on your next 
best-seller. 

9 Goto 3. 

There are three possible out¬ 
comes. First, you may quietly 
and honestly lose a substantial 
amount of money. Be a good 
loser, secure in the knowledge 
that you are a better and wiser 
person. 

Second, you may dishonestly 
lose a substantial amount of 
other people’s money. If you do 
this we trust you will be pillor¬ 
ied in public and face the 
righteous justice of the courts of 
the land. 

Third, you might just poss¬ 
ibly make a success of the 
venture and make a decent 
livingat it. It isonly fair to warn 
you that the third eventuality is 
by far the least likely but we 
wish you good luck. 

A good book about 
64 control interfacing 

am doing an advanced technoi- 
[ogy coarse and for this I must 


What I dread it the complaints on the 27tb when they bring back the 


Si 


decided to budd a control interface. 
Please recommend a book on inter¬ 
facing for a relative beginner and not 
i. My machine is the Com 


Paul Connolly, 

Newcastle, Co Down. 

A One of the better books on 
real-time interfacing and 
control is DIY Robotics and 
Sensors for the Commodore 64 
by John Billingsley. Published 
by Sunshine Books at £6.95, it 
has lots of detail on analogue to 
digital conversion covering 
joysticks, stepper motors, and 
robots with information on both 
hardware and software. 


PCN DECEMBER221984 



ffi lCROW AVES 


P V | I Have you any goo d aroweri lor Aiwtrad owner* or brainwave* for the Beeb? Store them wtth 

I 'N r~ * J ("1 M io * computer users by sending them to us. Not only will you get £10 for every tip published, 
■ y * ‘M if* J *** you cou,d fin d » bo nus of £50 comes your way if you are chosen as the Microwave of the 
S' L mofrth - 5end them to Microwaves, PCN, Evelyn House, 62 Oxford Street, London W1A 2HC. 


Feeling free to 
interrupt 

Prevent new from being en¬ 
tered from the keyboard, and 
demonstrate the use of 
keyboard interrupts, with the 
program below. 

When run, it asks for a 
number between 110 and 265 
and the machine code is located 
in memory at this number 
multiplied by 256. 

In normal operation, ie when 
the Spectrum is in interrupt 
mode 1 (set by mnemonic IM 1), 
every l/50th of a second a jump 
is made to address 38 hex to 
temporarily scan the keyboard. 
To change this address the 
interrupt mode 2 (IM 2) can be 
used. Then every l/50th of a 
second, the Z80 creates a vector 
with the I register as the high 
byte and another byte (usually 
255) that it receives from 
another part of the hardware as 
the low byte. At the location 
pointed to by this vector is the 


low byte followed by the high 
byte of the interrupts sub¬ 
routine address. A call to this 
address is then made. 

In the example program, 
lines 10 to 40 can be used to set 
up any interrupt routine. To put 
in your own routine, simply 
change the data in line 50. As 
the program stands it protects 
the user from accidentally new- 
ing a program. To return to 
normal enter goto mm. 

If you set up your own inter¬ 
rupt using this method you 
must first push all the registers 
used in your routine off the 
stack at the end. Next disable 
interrupts at the beginning of 
the routine using di and enable 
them at the end using ei. 
Lastly, if you still want the 
keyboard scanned. RST 38< hex) 
somewhere in the routine. 

In this way interrupts could 
be set to handle sprites, display 
a trace of a program, single step, 
and so on. 

CoHum Gibson, 

Blairgowrie, Perthshire. 


loader to sort out this problem: 
Line 30 — change the 6th data 
item to a T instead of a '6'. This 
will allow for the extra control 
code needed. 

Line 80 — change the 13th data 
item to 199* instead of '198’. 
This moves the address of the 
second code table by one byte 
Line 100 should read as follows: 



Access open to BBC 
disk sectors 

This procedure allows you to 
access any individual sector on 
the disk so as to write a copy of a 
buffer to it, or write a copy of the 
sector to the buffer. This process 
is useful when writing prog¬ 
rams, such as databases or disk 
indexes, which are reouired to 
access the disk filenames 
directly or perhaps access the 
first few bytes of a file for use as 
a title. 

To use the procedure the 
program must first, on running, 
initialise an 11-byte control 
block. This is pointed to by the 
variable control * 1 * and is 
achieved by including the state¬ 
ment dim control 1 * in your 
program. The procedure may 
then be cal led at any time by the 
command PROCsector access 


If you have your printer set up 
to line feed after the carriage 
return, change the 13th data 
item on line 70 to 'O’ instead of 
'13’. This will print a space. 

If all these alterations are 
made, the checksum on line 210 
will need changing to 24936, 
instead of 24923. 

This should make the dumps 
appear less squashed. 

Stephen Platt , 

Chorley, Lanes. 

(track, sector, buffer, mode). 
Buffer is an address which 
points to a 256-byte buffer for 
the data. This could be reserved 
using DIM buffers 255. The 
value of mode decides whether 
the operation is a read or a 
write. Mode is zero to write, one 
to read. 

Hie listing is for a single 
drive system. This can be 
changed for a multidrive sys¬ 
tem by altering these lines. 

Line 30 change the last 
number in the brackets to your 
number of drives 
Line 1080 add the parameter 
drive** after mode** 

Line 1100 change to 
?controll%=drive < * 

See Disc System User Guide 
(page 74) for further informa¬ 
tion. 

James Bridson, 

Culcheth, Warrington. 


Error-spotting 
BBC routine 

This routine for the BBC will 
automatically list the line 
where an error has occured so 
you can edit the mistake out 
quickly and easily. 

To use the routine, include 
near the beginning of the line: 


ON ERROR GOTO lOOOO 

To see this routine in action, 
type it in and try this short 
demonstration: 

10 ON ERROR GOTO lOOOO 
20 PRlNT“By Jonathan Tempi*' 

The computer will print ’mis¬ 
take’ and then list 20. 
Jonathan Temple, 

Beeston, Notts. 


101300 MODE 71 *FX4, 0 

10010 PRINT’ ’t REPORTtVDU 10,152 
10020 E*="L.’+STR*(ERL)+£HR*(13) 
10030 FOR LV.~ 1 TO LENfE*) 

10040 AX-&8A s X’/.=&01 YX-ASC ( MI D* (E* 
L%> ) 

10050 CALL &FFF4iNEXT 
10060 END 


64 screen dump Theproblemisinthechoiceof 

7/72 llne spacings A dump 
not SO squashed produced with this spacing 

I tried out Simon Taylor’s prog- causes some lines on the print- 
ram (issue 79) which provides out to contain the data of two 
screen dumps from the Com- screen lines. Changing the 
modore 64 to an Epson printer spacing to 8/72 line eradicates 
and found that the dumps the problem 
produced appeared to be The following alterations 
squashed. need to be made to the Basic 



1220 II- contn 
PROCsacti 
>230 ENDFSOC 


PCN DECEMBER221984 




























PHILIPS 



INCREDIBLE? 

'<■ wh.it comes bundled wrth 
ip P2000C .it these prices! 


Ib« affordable portable. 


Vast rang* of 16 and 8 bit software 
Dealer* all over Great Britain 
Service guaranteed 
Easy to use especially for beginners 
lips - with you every step of the way 


£1,990* 

for the P2009/16-16 bit, 352K RAM. 
is 64OK floppy. MS-DOS 211. CP/M 
2 2 Built-in 10 MB hard disk pos¬ 
sible Also runs 8 bit software 

£1,690; 

for the P2012 - 8 bit. 96K RAM. 2x 
640K floppies and CP/M 2 2. TTY. 
WordStar. CalcStar. MBASIC. Bus. 
ness Graphics and SAGE "Try-be- 
fore-you-buy* Accounts Packages 

£1,560; 

for the P2009 - 8 bit. 96K RAM. 
lx 640K floppy, and CP/M 2 2. TTY, 
WordStar. CalcStar. MBASIC Built- 
in 10 MB hard disk possible 

£995r 

for the P2010 - 8 bit. B6K RAM. 2x 
180K floppies and CP/M 2 2. TTY. 
WordStar CalcStar. MBASIC and 
SAGE 'Try-before-you-buy' Ac¬ 
counts Packages 


P2DDD 

c 


Computer 


the author tied dealer near you contort: 

gsway Data Systems, 30 Guildford Street Chertsey. Surrey. Tel (093 28) 68911. Telex 24667 

















upma 

3 D DRAWING 


To move the square cursor use the 
arrow keys, and T and 'O’ for'in’ and ’out’ 
(away from and towards you). To move 
the cross cursor, shift the keys. 

When the shape is finished, press 
Return. 

Procedure and functions 

The procedures and functions appear to 
be rather disorganised, but in fact they 
are in chronological order. When I 
thought of something new to put in the 
program, I just added another procedure 
to the end. 

Works out the coordinate for 
drawing the shape on the screen from the 
x and z coordinates, taking into account 
the camera position. 

Does the same for the y 
coordinate. 

Draws a 1 ine on the screen usi ng 
the x.y.z cood mates of the start and end 
of the line. 

Draws the whole shape and 
prints the title. 

Works out the clockwise/anti¬ 
clockwise movement of the shape. 

Works out up and down 

movement. 

Works out left and right move¬ 
ment. 

Initialises the demonstration 

shape. 

Saves the shape and title. 

Loads the shape. 

This is the main editor proce¬ 
dure. It initialises variables, reads the 
the keyboard and then counts the 
number of lines. 


Listing 


With Ian Wood’s Three 


you can explore and 


design your owe 3D Una 


drawings on the Both. 


T ^ie BBC’s graphics capabilities are 
excellent, but to take full advantage 
of them you need the right software. 
Three Dimensional Graphics for the 
BBC lets you design a three dimensional 
line drawing which can then be rotated 
in any direction. You can also save and 
load your own programs. 

Main menu 

^ * This brings up the rota- 

tiqn menu. 

' ‘" Ifthis is chosen the program 
asks for the filename. Be careful not to 
cause a 'Bad string’ error (by using a 
CHR$ less than 32). If you are using 
tape, the computer will print 'Record 
then Return’. 

* This brings up the shape 

PWU-, 

This brings up the move¬ 
ment menu. 

_ “ This redraws the shape. 

n Program thig c h osen the 
computer asks whether you want to 
start again. If you don’t the program 
ends. 

Shape menu 


*** clears the 
current shape and loads the built-in 
demonstration shape. 


clears the 

current shape and asks for the filename 
of the program to be loaded. Pressing 
Return without a filename loads the 
Dext program on tape. 

clears the current 
|hape and enters the editor. 

enters the editor, 
is the only way to change 
the title, as clearing the shape does not. 
A null string may be entered. When the 
^hape is saved, the title is saved with it. 
redraws the shape. 

Rotation & movement menu 

Both these give a choice of six directions 
plus the 'Exit menu’ option. When a 
direction has been chosen, the program 
asks how far you want to rotate or move 
the shape. 

The movement menu also has a 
'Change camera position’ option. This is 
included in the movement menu because 
the ’Move’ options actually change the 
camera position. 

Editor 

The editor is entered from the shape 
menu simply by selecting either the 
'Create new shape’ option or the 'Edit 
shape' option. 

Two cursors are displayed, together 
with their x,y.z coordinates, and can be 
moved around the screen. If the space 
bar is pressed a line will be drawn 
between the cursors and if the Delete key 
is pressed, the line will be deleted. Note 
that it's possible to draw up to one 
hundred lines. 


10REM_ 

2OREM I I 

30REM : Ilirt* DlMMIOfial Graphica ! 

40REM I t 

SOREti ! by lan Wood l 

60REM !_I 

'OREM 

SOON ERROR RROCarror:kNb 
90H00C4 

100VDU19,1,41012V,43VIS11123,1,01010(0 
123,224,233,129,133,163,103,133,12V,233, 
23,223,129,66,34,0,0,36,66, 129 

110D1N.XI99, 1) .yXIVV.l I ,zXI9V, II : I l net 
x-o:c «x-o:cyX-o:cix*u 
I20RROC l Mo 
130RROCdaao 
140PROCdraw 

lSOREMEAT PROCaaln_manu:UNI1L kay»-*6- 
160RR1NT"Start asain-MY/NI •: IE INSfRI" 
Nft*,GETS)*0 RON 

1 70VDU23,1,1 lOIOiOl : 66X13 1 
180END 

190REN_ 

200REM 

210DEFFN»ova. < vX. nXI 

220vX-vX-cxX:wX-mX-czX 

230IF vX<c <X vX-vX»lNT(<vS/811l*»X> 

240IF vX>CxX vX-vX-INTIl-vX/311ia*XI 

230-vX 

240DEFFNaovayIvX.xX) 

270vX-vX-eyX: hX-hX-czX 

2S0IF vtlcyt vX-vX*INT<IvX/SllldxXI 

290IF vX>cyX vX-vX-INTI(-vX/3111»wX) 


300-vX 

310DCFPROCplot<xlX,ylX,zlX,.2X,y2X,z2X 


320IF .IX-0 AND ylX-0 AND zlX-0 AND m2 
X-0 AND y2X-0 AND z2X-0 ENDRR0C 

330NOVEFNBOV6.ImIS, z1X1,FNaovayIyIX,z1 
XI 


XI 


Im2X,z 2X),FNaovay<y2X,z2 


330CNDRROC 
360DEFRR0C draw 
370CLS 

380F0R HnaX-0 TO ltnaaX 
390 »X-mX( 11n#X,01:yX-yXI1inaX.O):zX-zX 
<IInaX.OI:««X« »X11InaX,11:yyX-yXII■naX,1 
llZzX-zX'linaX,II 

400RR0Cplot(xX,yX,zX, mkX, yyX,zzXl 
410NEXT 

420VDU17,0,17,129,31,0,31:PRINT"Praaa 
SPACE tor sain aanu•|:o<4aatX-20-LENtItI 
aaDIV2:VDU17,l,17,l28,31,o««aatX,0:PRINT 
titla8TA3 lot taatX)STRIN08ILENtitlab, 
430ENDPR0C 

440DEFPROCroI IidagraaaX) 
430rada-RADidagraaaXI 
460F0R llnaX-0 TO 1 IflatX 
47OFOP polntt-0 TO 1 

480.X-.XI1inaS.pointXIlyX-yXIIInaX.pol 
ntXl 

490.X(11naX,points)..XaCOSrada-yXaSINr 
ada 

SOOyXlI»naX,poIntXI-.X*SINrad•«yX*COXr 

ada 


310NEXT 

320NEXT 

330ENDPR0C 

340DEFPR0CpltchldasraaaXl 
SDOrada-RADidagraa»X) 

360F0R HnaX-0 TO ltnaaX 
370F0R polntX-0 TO 1 
380yX-yX111 naX,poIn tXI:zX-zX111naX,poI 
ntXl 

SVOyXI11naX,pointXl-yXdCOSrada-zXdSINr 

ada 

600zXl 1 InaX, pointXI -yXaSINrada.zXKOSr 

ada 

610NCXT 

620NEXT 

630ENDPR0C 

640DEFPR0C rax IdagraaaXI 
630r ada-RAD(dagraaaX> 

640F0R IInaX-O TO 1InaaX 
670F0R pomtX-0 TO 1 

680.X-.Xi1InaX,pointXI:zX-zXI1InaX.pol 

690.X11 1naX,points)-xXdCOSrada-zXdSlNr 

ada 

700ZXC1InaX,polntXl-aSdSINrada*zX6C0Sr 

71 ONE XT 
720NEXT 
730ENDPR0C 
740DEFPROCda*o 

t 3OREST0RE:1 111#a--Daaonatrat ion ahapa 
*:1inaaX-9 

760FOR llnaX-0 TO 8 


12 


PCN DECEMBER221984 




























800NEXT 

810ENDPR0C 

S20DATA-200,-200,S2,-200,200,32,-200,2 
00,32,200,200,32,200,200,32,200,-200,32, 
200,-200,32,-200,-200,32,-200,-200,32,-2 
00,-200,-32.-200,-200,-32,200,-200,-32,2 
00,-200,-32,200,-200,32,-200,200,32,-200 
,-200,-32,200,200,32,200,-200,-32 
830D€FPROCaay4 

840VDU12,17,0,17, 129,31.0.IS:PRINT"Ent 
•r ntat 04 shapa:•»:VDU17,1,17,128 

830REP8AT INPUTTAB<20, 131 • -r»...*:0NTIL 
LENnaaa8>0 

860PRINT''Intirt tapa/dlac*' 
870channalt>0P£N0UT inanti 
BSOPRINTfchannalt,tltlad, 1 1 nnt 
890F0RI>11010:NEXT 
POOFOR 1 1 nat-0 TO Iins at 
91 OFOR polntt>0 TO 1 

920PRINTIcharms 11,«t(1inat.pointtl,ytl 
lInst,polnttl,it(1Inst,pomttl 
930NEXT 
940NEXT 

9S0CL0SEtchannslt 


970ENBPR0C 
980DEFPR0Cload 

990VDU12,17,0,17,129,31,0,13:PRINT a Ent 
r naaa o4 shapa:* I:VDU17,1,17,126 


1 0001NPUT • • naaal 
101OPRINT'•Insar t tapa/dlac *'’*I« usinq 
tapa.praaa PLAY on racordar" 

1020e h an naIt-OPENIN(na»adI 
1030IF channalt-0 PRINT'That shapa is n 
ot on this disc’:0OT099O 
1040INPUTCchannalt,titlaS,llnsat 
103OF0R 11nat>0 TO llnsat 
10a OF OR pomtt-0 TO 1 

I070INPUTIchannalt, *311 mat, pol nttl , ytl 
11nat,polnttl,it(1 1 nat,polnttl 
1080NEXT 
1090MEXT 

1lOOCLOSECchannalt 
11I0V0U7 
II20ENDPR0C 
USODEFPROCsntsr 

1ldOPROCdran:V0U17,0,17,129,28,0.31,39, 
31,12 

1130calt>0:eylt>0:cxlt>0:cK2t>0:cy2t>0: 
ez2t-0 
1I60REPEAT 

1701F INKEY-I PROCpolnt2 ELSE PROCpotn 


tl 


lIOOat-FNaova.l 
:zltl 


■It,ci 


I:bt-FN»ovay<ey 


1190N0VE at - 16. bt • 16: VOWS,1 •, 3. 1,224 
1200pt-FNiaova« Ic»2t,ci2tl : qt-FNaovar <Cy 
2t,ez2t) 

121OHOVEpt-16,qt«16:VD0223 
1220S/DU4,31,0,0,32,32, 224: PRINT I exit! *, 
•leyltl’,‘Iciltl* •ICMR92231c■2tl*,* Ic 

y2tl•,*|cx2tl• •I 


I230N0VEat-I6,bfI6:WOOS,224 
1240M0VE p\-I *,qt*14:VDU223 
1230IF INKEY-90 PROCadit 
1240IF INKEY-99 PROC1■na:1lnaat>linsat* 

1270UNTIL INKEY-74 OR )lnaat>99 
1280IF Ilnaat>99 PROCno rooa 
1290V0U24,18,0,1,17,1,17,128,29,4391311 


ISlODEFPROCpointl 

1320IF INKEY-24 c<lt>c>lt-4 

1 330IF INKEY-122 olfoltM 

13401F INKEY-42 cylfeylt-4 

1330IF INKEY-SB cylt-cylt*4 

1360IF INKEY-38 CIlt-eilt-4 

1370IF INKEY-33 czlfczlt«4 

1380ENDPR0C 

1390DEFPR0Cpo1nt2 

1400IF INKEY-26 c»2t>c«2t-4 

1410IF INKEY-122 ca2fc.2t»4 

1420IF INKEY-42 cy2t-cy2t-4 

I430IF INKEY-38 Cy2t>cy2t«4 

1440IF INKEY-38 cz2t>c>2t-4 

1430IF INKEY-33 cz2t>cz2t>4 

1460ENDPR0C 

I470DEFPROC1Ina 

1480IF FNchsct ENDPROC 


ISOOPROCpIotIc«lt,eyIt.ezIt,c>2t,cy2t,c 
z2tl 

1310>t<l mast.0l-c.lt: ytl I mast.OI-cylt 
: ztl I mast, 01 >c> It 


PCN DECEMBER 221984 


13 













































ZX SPECTRUM 

s,NCL ?0YS-ncK compatible 


you again*' 
e0em Iodm’**»«* t 


REALTIME - -SOFTWARE 


SSsSi 


=S S~SrSZ 

ST^SSS^-n 




UTPUT: BBC 




PROCpointl Moves square cursor. 
PROCpoint2 Moves cross cursor. 

PROCIine Draws a line. First checks to see 
if line already exists. 

PROCedit Deletes a line. First checks to 
see if line already exists. 

PROCdelete Called by PROCedit. Deletes 
a line and compacts the list of coordin¬ 
ates (removes empty spaces in list). 
PROCcompact Called by PROCdelete. 
Compacts the list of coordinates. 
PROCmain menu Prints main menu, 
reads keyboard and calls a procedure 
depending on choice made. 

PROCrotate—menu As above, for rotation. 
PROCinput Inputs the number of degrees 
that the shape is to be rotated. 
PROCshape _ menu As PROCmain menu, 
for shape menu. 


PROCerror Puts colours and cursor back to 
normal, empties the keyboard buffer 
and prints an error message. 

PROClear Called by PROCshape menu. 
Clears the shape. 

PROCno _ room Called by PROCenter, if 
the arrays holding the list of coordinates 
are full. Prints an error message on the 
screen 

FNcheck Called by PROCline. Checks to 
see if line to be drawn already exists. 
PROCinfo lVints the instructions. 
PROCtitte Inputs a new title. 

PROCmove _ menu As PROCmain menu 
but for movement menu. 

PROCpoints Inputs the number of points 
that the shape is to be moved. 

PROCout Moves shape out (towards 
screen!. With a negative value, moves 
shape in (away). 


x\y%4% 


PROCup Moves shape up or down. 

PROCIeft Moves shape left or right. 

PROCc — pot Inputs a new camera 

position. 

Main variables 

These three arrays make 
up the list of coordinates 
that form the shape. 

NnesS The number of lines in 

the shape minus one. 

Hm% Used throughout the 

program. Current line 
being worked on. 

key$ Used in menu proce¬ 

dures. Contains the last 
key pressed. 

cx%,cy%,cz% The coordinates of the 
camera position. 

titie$ The title of the shape. V 



PCN DECEMBER2219S4 












































































































































































UTPUT: QL 


INSIDE THE HEADER 


| Al—T otIwIwpIiI— howy c— utabattr wof I wfrn oiitfctQL 1 


A mong QDOS system calls 

documented in the QDOS manuals 
is one which reads 'header' details 
from QL Microdrive files. These headers 
hold information not listed when you 
take a simple directory listing of a 
cartridge. The headers can accommo¬ 
date file length, file access flag, file type, 
file-dependent information, file name 
and date information. 

Currently, QDOS uses neither the file 
access flag nor the date information. 


Presumably, these would offer file ac¬ 
cess privilege protection and extended 
directories including date and time 
when saved, as provided on 'proper' disk 
operating systems. 

At the moment, QDOS recognises only 
two types of file: those generated by 
SAVE (for Basic), SBYTES (for code) or 
PRINT# (for data), and those which are 
generated by SEXEC (for 'transient', 
multi tasking machine code programs). 

In the case of Basic, code and data files, 


Listing 1: MC68008 code 


7600 

72FF 

41FA001A 

7001 

4E42 

343C0040 
76FF 

43FA004C 

7047 

4E43 

7002 

4E42 

4E73 


MOVEO £0,03 

MOVEO £-1,00 

LEA channel(PC),AO 

MOVEO £1,00 

TRAP £2 

MOVE.M £64,02 

MOVEO £-1,03 

LEA buffer(PC),A1 

MOVEO £71,00 

TRAP £3 

MOVEO £2,00 

TRAP £2 

RTS 


I signal old, exclusive file 
I signal 'this Job' ID 
I point to channel naae 
t signal IO_OPEN systeai call 
« do QDOS system call 
I signal 64 bytes for file header 
I signal no "tiae-out' 

I point to buffer for header 
1 signal FS.HEAOR systea call 
I do ODOS systea call 
t signal 10_CLOSE systea call 
; do QDOS systea call 
i return to Super BASIC 


tel 


(e 


advlj 


• ) 


Listing 2: SuperBasic program 


too REMark OL Mlcrodnve File Header Reader 
HO REMark <c> October 1984, Alan Turnbull 
120 i 

130 IF RESPR(01-262144 THEN 
140 LET read header =■ RESPR (512) 

130 ELSE 

160 LET read header-RESPR(O) 

170 END IF 
100 RESTORE 

190 FOR data itea_nuaber=l TO 32 
200 READ data_ltea 

210 POKE r ead header«data iten nuaber-1,data_ltea 
220 END FOR data itea_nuaber 
230 OPENNEM £4,adv2_teap_dir 
240 DIR £4,advl_ 

230 CLOSE £4 

260 OPEN_IN £4,adv2_teap_dir 
270 INPUT £4,duaay*tduaay*| 

280 REPeat read.file_naaes 

290 IF EOF(£4) THEN EXIT read.fi1e.naaes 
300 INPUT £4|file.naae# 

310 LET file.naae*«‘advl_“ 6 file.naae* 

320 LET file_naae_length-LEN(file_naae*> 

330 POtCE k read header *32, f t 1 e name l ength 
340 FOR character-1 TO file.naae length 

330 POKE read.header♦344-character-1 .CODE(f i 1 e naae* (character > > 

360 NEXT character 

370 CALL read.header 

380 LET file.length-PEEK.L(read_headerr96) 

390 LET file.type-PEEK(read.header4101) 

400 PRINT file.naae*(6 TO) 

410 PRINT “File length - *|file.length 
420 PRINT “File typei “| 

430 SELect ON file.type 
440 -O 

430 PRINT “BASIC/data/code“ 

460 -1 

470 PRINT “Transient prograa* 

480 LET default.data.size-PEEK_L(read.header♦102> 

490 PRINT ‘Default data area size - “jdefault.data.size 

300 END SELect 
310 PRINT 

320 END REPeat read flle.naaes 

330 CLOSE £4 

340 DELETE adv2_teap_dir 

330 i 

360 DATA 118,0,114,233,63,230,0,26,112,1,78,66,32,60,0.64 

370 DATA 118,235.67,230.0,76.112.71.78.67.112.2.78,66.78.117_ 


the only information held in the header 
besides the file name is the length of the 
file itself, in bytes. For transient prog¬ 
rams, the default size oftheir data spaces 
is held as well. 

The machine code program for the 
MC68008 processor in Listing 1 reads 
headers from QL Microdrive cartridges. 

It has three main parts. First, a channel 
is opened by calling the QDOS system 
routine IO OPEN using TRAP 2 with 
registers DO = 1 (to identify which 
system routine is required); D1 = -1 (to 
specify the current ’job’ — that is, the 
SuperBasic command processor; D3 = 0 
to signal that an old, exclusive file is to be 
opened and AO pointing to the channel 
name in the format "mdvl somename”. 
The system call opens the channel and 
returns the channel ID in AO. This 
channel ID is subsequently held in AO 
and used by the following system calls. 

Second, the file header is read into a 
64-byte buffer in memory so that a 
SuperBasic program may examine it. 
This requires a call to QDOS system 
routine FS HEADR using TRAP 3 with 
DO = 71; D2 = 64 (the memory buffer 
length); D3 =* -1 (the 'time-out’ value 
needed by the serial access routines); the 
channel ID in AO and A1 holding a 
pointer to the memory buffer itself. 

Lastly, the channel created by 10 
OPEN using the temporary channel ID 
in AO is closed by a call to IO CLOSE 
usding TRAP 2 with DO = 2. 

To use the machine code routine 
properly, a SuperBasic program is also 
needed. The program in Figure 2 uses 
the machine code (held in DATA state¬ 
ments) to print out the header informa¬ 
tion for each file found on QL Microdrive 
'mdvl’. It uses 'mdv2' as a temporary 
store for the DIRectory listing from 
'mdvl'. This is stored on cartridge and 
read back, one file name at a time. 

The file names are put into the table 
required by the machine code and the 
routine is called to read the header for 
that file direct from the cartridge. 

When this is finished (and it is quite 
fast), the header may be examined as it 
now lies in memory above the original 
machine code. 

The header, when read into memory, 
starts at (start of machine code)+96 and 
the file length is held as a long word (four 
bytes) at this position. The file type is 
stored as the sixth byte in the header, so 
is at an offset 101 bytes from the 
machine code start. 

For transient programs, the default 
data space size is held as a long word 
starting at the seventh byte in the 
header and so is at (start of machine 
code)-)-102. 

Of course, the routines presented here 
would be of more use when files are 
saved with date and file protection 
information. But you should now know 
how to write simple utility programs in 
conjunction with the QDOS Manual. W 
In Listings 1 and 2.1 led) tb* £ sign shoukd be treated 

as a#._ 

PCN DECEMBER221984 






ATARI/CBM/MEMOTECH/ETC. 

TOOL BOX'84 is a very helpful tool which is made for you, the serious 
computer user. 

TOOL BOX'84 is specially designed for electronical functions such as! 
-makinq your own joysticks, paddles, liqhtpens etc. 

-makinq qanqinqinstruments for light, wind, heat and resistance, 
-makinq electronic alarmsystems. 

-makinq your own robotsystem. 

-developing your skills in computers and electronics, 

TOOL BOX'84 is needed in schools, work or for your hobby. 

TOOL BOX'84 is delivered with a informative user's guide with lots of 
program listinqs. 

TOOL BOX'84 is a necessity for the beginner. 

TOOL BOX'84 adds a quite new dimension to your computer-life ! 

DEALER AND DISTRIBUTOR 

Send for our free! TOOL BOX'84 Information. inquiries invited 


INorbit l/ektronikkl 

DATA • SOFTWARE 

PO. BOX 228, N-7701 STEINKJER 
NORWAY 

TEL: (NORWAY) (01047) 7765440. 7765310 


£ 36.25 

and hancftng £ 250 per cuter 

.KOI CA*DI yjff 
WflCOMI 


I own the computer and Please send 

copies of the TOOL BOX'84 £36.25 p.p. and/or 
free TOOL BOX'84 Information. 

Name MCt or Visa# 

Address Exp .Date 

City/St./Zip .Sianature 

Charge card no - - --- 

TOOL BOX'84 is a trademark of Norbit Elektronikk. 


PCN DECEMBER221984 


17 














iUTPUT: COMMODORE 64 


SOLO 

POKER 


K*» a tricky land that your 


64 deals in this solitaire 


card game by Keith HoMey. 


A computer has to be the ultimate in 
poker faces, so you’d expect Poker 
Solitaire for the Commodore 64 to 
be tricky. You’d be right. 

The game’s layout consists of five rows 
of five face-up cards each, and you place 
the cards dealt by the computer in any 
position you choose. You can’t move a 
card after you’ve placed it so you need to 
put a bit of thought into this. 

Each row, each column and the two 
diagonals are the equivalent of a poker 
hand. Your goal is to place the cards in 
such a way as to produce the best hands 
possible. Details of scoring are included 
intheprogram. V 



TOTAL 228 


lil _t± 



words in square brockets should be ropUcod by their keyboard 
equivalent. An S in brackets Indicates the shift key, to [ST] moans p 


7 ecu ••••••••• roKt* sot sv •••••!«•• 

4 *rw •'HTH ‘♦OtLCY ••••••••• 

3 OEM WW4MMIHIHWH IWMM 

• oorurj*? 

I# PPINTCMPOI 142) 

M PP IN T • f DOWN ) l DOWN)(DOWN J t DOWN)(DOWN)K 
DOWN 1 ( DOWN ) r DOWN 11 DOWN I t DOWN 1 l DOWN J l DOWN 

* I DOWN 1 f DOWN It DOWN If DOWN | f DOWN J I DOWN )( DO 
WN 1 r DOWN If DOWN J t DOWN )fDOWN1f DOWN J ( DOWN ) • 

i7 •i*wn:r*f 

17 Pit)•ie4-:Pi2)-i072:Pi3)-i077:Pi4)-io 

14 p*4»-I247:P(7)-t277SP<0l-l277:P<e>-l2 
07:Pt101-1707 

is pm i i-iee7:Pci7»-ie77:Pi 13 »-i«77:pi 14 

14 PI 1 4* — 1 447: PC 1 7> — 1477:PfID)—1477;PI 1* 
>-1407:P<701-1407 

17 P(21)-1047:P(?2)*107?:P(23)-1077:P(74 


P P00I-IT03 


ht i (oiomtk ovson i m( ovsoor) (oiomt hoiomt 
11WIOHV 1 (OVSON) 1 (OVSOFF)(OIOMT)(OIOMT 1( 
OIOMT l(PVSON) JIOVSOFF)* 

32 PPINT"(DOWN 1 tDOWN)(DOWN) I DOWN 1(R1GMT ) 
CPIONT1reiOHTI(OVSON) K(OVSOFF)(OIOMT1IP 
TOHT1(OIOHT)(OVSON) L(OVSOFF1(PIOHT1(010 
NT J f OlOMT 1 (OVSON1 NIOVSOFF1(OIOMT1(OIOHT 
1(OIOHT1(OVSON 1 N(OVSOFFI(OIOMT1 (OIOHT>( 
OIOHT1(OVSONi oiovsoffj* 

33 POINT*(DOWN)(DOWN 1(DOWN1(DOWN)(OIOHT1 
(PIOHT1(OIOHT1f OVSON1 P(OVSOFF1( O IOHT1(O 
IOMT)(OIOHT)(OVSON) 0( OVSOFF )(OIOHT) (OIO 
NT)(OIOHT1(OVSON) 0(0VS0FF ) (OIOHT 1 (OIOHT 
)(OIOHT )(OVSON) S(OVSOPF) (OIOMTI(OIOHT )( 
OIOHT)(OVSON) T(OVSOFF)* 

34 POINT*(DOWN)(DOWN)(DOWN)(DOWN) (OIOHT) 
(OIOHT)(OIOMTKOVSON) U( OVSOFF ) (OIOHT)(O 
IOMT)(OIOM* )(OVSON) V(OVSOFF ) (OIOHT )(OIO 
NT) (PIOHT KOVSON) W( OVSOFF ) (OIOHT ) (OIOMT 
) (OIOHT KOVSON) XI OVSOFF ) (OtCHT )( OIOMT ) ( 
OIOHT1(OVSON) V(OVSOFF1 • 

33 POINT* (c 2) (HONS 1(DOWN ) (DOWN ) (DOWN) (D 
I-TAD <3 


34 POOI-1T04 

37 POIN T TAD <301 * 
30 NSXTI 

35 POINT TAD•3#I * 


#)(• 


•)(■ II* 


40 PCFCPIAA) *40,32:PO»:EP<AA) *4 1.32 
40 PONF»(AA) •«! .X'.PCmiP tAA) •ao.s 

70 POOfP(AA) *01*01 .SS:PONffP(AAl *01 •oo.ss 

71 7-7*1 

■’? POKE 1 ess. 32: POKE I 454,37 

73 POKCI4SO.32:POPE 1430.37 

74 OOK14I 

-*S POINT* (HONE He 2)1 DOWN 1 1 DOWN ) *TAD I 70) 
C SCOPING (DOWNKLEFTKLCFTIILEFTKLEF 
TKLEPT1 (LEFT) (LEFT! (LEFT) (LEFT) 


I PP!NTTA0«32t I 


70 POINTTAD *■ 30) * 


)( DOWN)-TAD (3 



18 


PCN DECEMBER221984 






































6-7 

8 

9-17 

19-39 

40-58 

42 

59-73 

74 

75-154 

155-161 

162-164 

165-174 

175-288 


How rt works 

clear the screen and set the 
screen and bordercolours to 
grey. 

cal Is the title page at line 165. 
set the variables for the 
screen locations, 
print the cards to the screen. 
choose a card at random and 
print it to the screen, 
checks that if 25 cards have 
been dealt you go to line 75. 
ask you where you wish the 
card to beplaced, and print it 
there. 

sends you round for the next 
card. 

score the 12 rows. Variable SC 
= accumulative score, SX = 
score foreach individual row. 
print the total score, high 
score (the maximum is 6,000 
—1,500 or more is excel lent i 
and ask ifyou require another 
game. 

hold the data for the scoring 
routine. 

are the opening pages, and ask 
ifyou require instructions, 
instructions on how to play the 
game. 



if 




f-ti iS 





^ \ 





PCN DECEMBERS 1984 























UTPUT: SPECTRUM 



I ANIMATED I 
DISCUSSION 


Program 2 


20 REM I MACHINE CODE for 

30 REM | SCREEN SQUEEZE 
40 REM I A.Mvn*tt 1084 I 

110 REM I MfeX LOADER 


Breath* fresh Hi* Into your gripMcs. Wtth Al— Mynett's anhintiow 
routines, you can store enough fra mes to p roduce some superb sequences. 


W ith careful programming it is 
possible to increase the number 
of whole screen frames on a 48K 
Spectrum beyond the normal five and 
use these to create spectacular anima¬ 
tion sequences. 

You can do this either by using part 
screens or more generally by the use of a 
simple data compression technique. 

A short machine code program is 
described here which allows the storage 
of a large number of animation frames 
and permits their successive replay. An 
accompanying Basic program is pro¬ 
vided for use with the machine code. And 
things are followed by a simple demon¬ 
stration program which creates a 32- 
frame animated sequence. 

Animation 

The 48K Spectrum, with its 40K of user 
available memory, can hold five full 
screens, including attributes, at any one 
time. This allows for a Basic driver and 
the necessary machine code routine to do 
the copying of bytes into the display file. 

Program 1 is a loader program for a 
general purpose byte-moving routine. 
Although Program 1 loads it into the 
UDG area above RAMTOP, it could go 
anywhere. It is called from a Basic 
program by the line: 
randomize en ml from, to, bytes) 

The function is defined with: 

DBF FN m(a,b,c)=usR address 
The address is the location of the 
machine code. The variables from, to and 
bytes are the locations of the stored 
bytes, the display file address (16384) 
and the number of bytes (6912) respec¬ 
tively. 

The function is used to pass para¬ 
meters to a machine code routine. 
Remember that when you include a def 
fn command in a program, storage space 
for the parameters is set up in the Basic 
line. When the program then encounters 
the use of the function, the values of the 
parameters (either numbers, variables 
or expressions) are temporarily stored, 
in five byte numerical form in the Basic 
line containing the function definition. 
The address of this storage area is kept 
in the system variable DEF ADD at 
23563. 

The assembly language version is: 

LDIX (DEF ADD) 

LDLdX+4) 

LD H OX+U 
LOB <1X412) 

LD DUX+13) 


LDCUX420) 

LDB (1X421) 

LDIR 

RET 

When the routi ne is cal led, the address of 
the function parameter location is 
loaded into the IX register. The bytes at 
four and five locations further on hold 
the first parameter in the order low byte, 
high byte. Similarly, displacements 
12,13 hold the second and displacements 
20,21 hold the third. These bytes are 
loaded into the HL, DE and BC registers 
prior to a block move instruction. 

Storing screens 

The problem with storing whole screens 
is that five is usually not enough for 
smooth animation. Very often the need 
arises to scroll through many more 
screens. One simple solution is to 
restrict the animation to just one third of 
the screen area. Again the function call 
of Program 1 can be used. The relevant 
values for the variables to and bytes are 
shown in Figure 1. Since we can keep 
three part-screens in the space occupied 
by one whole screen, the number of 
frames rises to 15. 

Remember, however, that because of 
the parallel attribute file thiscan only be 
done in colour by making two function 
calls for each frame — one for the pixel 
information and the second for the 
attribute information. 

Suppose though, we can’t restrict our 
animation to just one third of the screen. 
Is it still possible to increase the number 
of frames? The answer is yes — if we 
store, not the whole screen, but the 
differences between successive screens. 

The key to how this can be done is the 
exclusive-or(XOR)operation. An exam¬ 
ple should make this clear. Let’s assume 
that we have two screens in the compu¬ 
ter’s memory. Let’s call them A and B. 
We can compare two equivalent bytes in 
the two screens by XORing the byte in 
screen A with the byte in screen B. 

If the two bytes are the same then the 
result of this operation will be zero and 
we need take no further action. If the 
bytes are different then the result is a 
byte which is, in effect, a measure of the 
difference between the two screens. 
Suppose 

screen A byte = 10010011 

screen B byte = 01110000 
then XOR result = 11100011 

Now, if we have screen A in the display 
file and the XOR result in memory, then 
a second XORing will reconstruct the 


20 


130 RESTORE 1000 
140 READ addraaa,datalln«t 
130 PRINT TAB 101 BRIGHT II'LOA 
DING CODE’ 

160 FOR n-1 TO datalinaa 

170 READ a*: LET b«-aM(18 TO II 

LET chack-0 

180 FOR — 1 TO IS STEP 2 

100 LET hM-aM<* TO *41): GO SUB 

0200 

200 POKE addraas.byta 
210 LET addraaa-addraaafi: LET 
chack-chackfbyta 
220 NEXT m 

230 IF chackOVAL bM THEN BEEP 
.3,241 LET I 1na*1000♦n*10: LET h 
-INT (1ina/236): POKE 23626,h! P 
OKE 23623,1ln*-h»236: PRINT "ERR 
OR at 11na ’llina: PRINT *Typa E 
DIT and corract line.’: STOP 


Program 3 


10 REM ** SCREEN COMPRESS ♦* 

11 REM »• A.Mynatt *# 

12 REM *• Oct 1084 ** 

20 CLEAR 26734: LOAD ""CODE 
23 LET icraanl'VAL *26864*: LE 
T data-VAL *33776*: LET iquaai** 
VAL *26733*: LET umquaaia'VM. * 
26810*: LET mova-VAL *26840*: LE 
T bvtaa-VAL *6012* 

30 CLS : PRINT AT 1,21 INVERSE 
11* SCREEN COMPRESSION PROGRAM 

40 PRINT : PRINT : PRINT TAB 8 
1*1 Coaprasa acraana*‘’TAB 81*2 
VI aw animation** ’TAB 81*3 Flnlah 

30 INPUT * Chooao option <1 
- 3) *1 LINE z»: IF CODE z«<40 O 
R CODE z»>31 THEN GO TO 30 

60 GO SUB 1000»VAL Z«S GO TO 3 

0 

000 REM 

1000 REM ** coapraaa ** 

1001 REM a**##***#****# 

1010 DEF FN h 1 x >"INT lx/236): DE 
F FN 1<x)-x-236#FN hlxl 
1020 INPUT -ENTER total no of fr 
aaaa *1 LINE z«: LET framaa-VAL 
z« 

1040 CLS : DIM a(frama*4 l >: let 
alll'acraanl: LET a(2)*data 
1030 POKE 23206,FN l(data): POKE 
23207,FN h(data) 

1063 FOR n-1 TO framaa 

1070 PRINT Mil AT l,0l*LOADtng *1 

1080 POKE 23630,0: PRINT AT 22,0 
i: load *'CODE acraanl.bytaa: po 
KE 23630,2: IF n-1 THEN RANDOMIZ 
E USR -ova: GO TO 1120 
1083 PRINT Mil AT 0,0,,,, 

1000 LET a(nf1)-USR aquaaza 
1003 LET apaca—63S33-a(n*ll: IF 
apaca<1000 THEN LET n-<raxaa 
1100 RANDOMIZE USR mova 
1110 PRINT Mil AT 0,01nI * Storad 
in *|a<n4l)-a(n>I TAB 21t*8paca-* 
Iapaca 
1120 NEXT n 

1123 PRINT Ml|AT 1,31'Praaa ENTE 

R to cantinua'i PAUSE 0 

1130 CLS : PRINT AT 2,5I*A11 acr 









Program 1 

240 PRINT AT 2,3|*Llne *11000*1 

0*n|" Is correct.*: NEXT n 

230 STOP 

270 REM 1 HEX to DEC 

1 

290 LET byte-0 

300 FOR o-l TO 2: LET byte-byte 
• 16*CODE h* (O)-48-7*Ih*(o) > *9“»: 
NEXT o 

310 RETURN 

980 REM 1 MACHINE CODE DATA 

1 

1000 DATA 26733,13 

1 REM ** MOVEBYTES ** 

3 RESTORE 100: LET sue-0 

10 FOR rt-USR “•“ TO USR “e**24 
20 READ byte 

30 PRINT n|* *|byte 

40 POKE n.byte: LET suo-sue*by 
te 

30 NEXT n 

ROR IN DATA*: STOP 

100 REM ** DATA »• 

110 DATA 221,42,11,92,221,110,4 
,221,102,3,221,94,12,221,86,13,2 
21,78,20,221,70,21,237,176,201 

Program 4 

1010 DATA *21004011F0680100-439“ 
1020 DATA “181AAE2812D3E32A-769* 
103* DATA * 003BD17323722377—718“ 
1040 DATA “2322003BD3E1D123—842“ 
1030 DATA *130B79B020E32A00-628* 
1060 DATA “3D23233600232200—284“ 
1070 DATA “3BED4B003BC9002A—737“ 
1080 DATA “00SBSE2336237EFE—721* 
1090 DATA "002807EBAE77EB23—843“ 
1100 DATA “18F02322003BC900-62S- 
1110 DATA *0000000000110040-81“ 
1120 DATA “21F06801001BEDB0-018* 
1130 DATA “C900000000000000-20l“ 

20 REM *** ANIMATION DEMO *** 

40 

100 LET x-230: LET y-3: LET r-1 

0 

110 FOR n-1 TO 31 

12* CLS : LET theta-n»PI/40 

123 60 SUB 1200 

130 IF n< —23 THEN 60 SUB 1000 

140 IF n—26 THEN PLOT *,140: DR 
AW 0,-40,-3.3 

130 IF n—27 THEN PLOT 0,163: DR 
AW 0, - 100,-4 


160 IF n>27 THEN 60 SUB 1300 


••ns compreeeed■I AT 4,21 INVERSE 
1 l ■ R* I oad scr»»n 1 into uaory. 


100 LET r«r *n/100: LET x-x-r*SI 
N theta: LET y-y*r*C0S th»t» 

190 NEXT n 
200 STOP 


are less than one third of the total screen 
bytes (each difference is stored as two 
address bytes and one resultant byte), a 
considerable increase in the number of 
frames is usually possible. 

Program 2 contains the necessary 
machine code routines to implement 
these ideas, clear 267<m and then type in 
the program and run it. Once the 
program runs satisfactorily the 
machine code can be saved using: 
save “squeeze” code 26755,97 

This machine code contains three 
routines. The routine at 26755 performs 
the XOR on the display file and a screen 
in memory at 26864. It stores the display 
file address of any non-zero result 
together with the result in a file from 
33776. 

The routine at 26810 reads this 
memory store and carries out the 
reconstruction of successive screens. 
The routine at 26840 is a move bytes 
routine to shift the screen at 26864 into 
the display file. 

Program 3 is a Basic control program 
which allows the construction of files of 
compressed screen data using the 
routines in Program 2. Type it in, run 
and load in the previously saved 
machine code. The Basic and code can be 
saved together by a GOTO 9999. 


1140 LOAD “CODE ■cr«*nl,byU« 
1143 INPUT “Hard Copy? <Y/N> “I 
LINE *01 LET dev-2: IF z*-“y* TH 
EN LET dev-3 

1130 INPUT “ENTER tilenaae 
CL8 : PRINT Wd*vt TAB 111*0 
1170 FOR n-1 TO fraui 


o “la«n*l>-ll* - “lafn*l>-a(n> 
1190 NEXT n 

1200 PRINT Ml I AT 0,01 INVERSE II 
“Pr*»» any key xhtn ready to 8AV 
E* : PAUSE 0: 

1210 SAVE 40CODE 0CrMnl,al«raM 
a»l) -icrMnl 

1220 PRINT Md»vl“SAVEd •• “l*0|“ 
CODE 26864, • I a ( ♦ run* 1 ) -«cr»»n 

1240 RETURN 

1999 REM ************* 

2000 REM ** anlxat* ** 


2010 REM : INPUT “FI 1 *naH 0*1*0 
2020 REM : LOAD “CODE 
2030 INPUT “Hom many fraaiea alto 
pether? 'Ifruwt 

2040 INPUT • Pr»i ENTER to run 
animation “I LINE z* 

2030 RANDOMIZE USR mov» 

2033 POKE 23296,FN lldatall POKE 
23297,FN hldatal 
2060 FOR n-1 TO *rame»-l 
2063 PAUSE 10 

2070 RANDOMIZE USR uniaumt 
2080 NEXT n 

2003 IF INKEY0— *“ THEN 60 TO 203 

0 

2090 INPUT “ Rerun or Finish (R/ 
F» “I LINE *0: IF Z0—*r* THEN 60 
TO 2040 
2100 RETURN 

2999 REM ********* 

3000 REM ** end ** 

3001 REM *♦»*»*♦»* 

3003 INPUT “ENTER Y to reset com 
puter “| LINE *05 IF *0<>*V* THE 
N RETURN 

3010 RANDOMIZE USR 0 
9999 SAVE “squeezer* LINE 1: SAV 
E “squeeze“CODE 26733,100: VERIF 
Y ““: VERIFY ““CODE 


999 

1000 CIRCLE x,y,2#n 

1010 PLOT x.INT <y*2»n>: IF n>2 

AND n< 23 THEN DRAW 0,-4#n*.3,PI- 

(2*PI*n»/23 

1020 RETURN 

1199 

1200 FOR m—0 TO 23 STEP 4: PLOT 
0,m: DRAW 233,0: NEXT m: FOR m-0 

TO 233 STEP 3: PLOT 0,0: DRAW 0 
,24: NEXT m 
1210 RETURN 
1499 

1300 PLOT 0,167: DRAW 0,-4»n,-l. 
3*PI♦In-271 
1310 RETURN 

1999 

2000 POKE 23736,181: SAVE (“demo 
-♦STRS n>SCREENS 

2010 RETURN 


screen B byte as we can see from: 
screen A byte * 10010011 
XOR result - 11100011 
second XOR result - 01110000 = 
screen B byte 

So, in order to achieve an animated 
sequence the computer needs to contain 
the starting frame in full, but for each 
successive frame only a list ofdisplay file 
addresses and the XOR result of each 
byte which has to be changed. 

Provided that the changes to be made 


Animated behaviour 

To use the program, you will need a tape 
containing all your animation frames 
one after the other. Run the main 
program and when asked to load the first 
screen start the tape and let it run. 

One word of warning — to prevent 
damage, headers are printed on line 24. 
This is made possible by the poke in line 
1080. Do not try to break during the load 
or you will crash the program. Once 
completed the whole file can be saved. 

To see the completed animation use 
Menu option 2. Option 2 is written as a 
subroutine so that it can be easily 
removed for use in any other program 
by removing REMs at lines 2010/2020. 

For a demonstration, Program 4 
produces 32 frames for an animated 
sequence. Type the program into the 
computer and place a C60 tape into the 
cassette recorder. Start the tape record¬ 
ing and run the program. It is not 
necessary to press any keys since the 
POKE 23736,181 bypasses the 'Start Tape’ 
message. 

It takes about 25mins to generate and 
save the 32 screens. This tape can then 
be used with program 3 to make the 
animation file. W 



Display and attribute file addresses for each third of the screen. 


Display file 

Attributes 


to 

bytes 

to bytes 

Top 

16384 

2048 

22528 256 


18432 

2048 

22784 256 

Bottom 

20480 

2048 

22940 256 


21 


















UTPUT: AMSTRAD 


STRETCH YOUR 
CHARACTERS 

| Stretch yoerlettere to tfcefr fiiH helgM with thbaa*y^o«ti»« tor the ABHtredfroeiioliii KeaaaWy | 


T his machine code program for the 
Amstrad CPC464 allows you to 
print double height characters on 
the screen, for use both in games and 
serious software. The characters can be 
printed in windows and can be user 
defined using symbol as normal. Used 
for headings, they give a professional 
look to your software. 

As well as providing a useful facility to 
the Basic programmer, the assembly 
language 1 i st i ng demonstrates the use of 
many of the Amstrad’s powerful fea¬ 
tures, including some ROM routines. 

To get it running, type in the Basic 
Loader listing, taking particular care 
with the DATA statements (don’t con¬ 
fuse 8's with B’s), and then save it onto 



Tbb is double he«M output. 


tape. When run, the screen should clear 
and the program is ready to use. 

There are no messy calls to machine 
code from now on. All that is required is 
to type print chr*( 2 m) to turn on double 
height printing, and print chr$( 2 aa) to 
revert back to normal printing. These 
characters no longer print and are used 
as control codes by the software — so 
redefining these will have no useful 

«fhd 

Obviously, by mixing these charac¬ 
ters in a print string, it is possible to 
print double and normal height charac¬ 
ters on the same line. The only restric¬ 
tion is that double height characters 
cannot be printed via the tag command. 

The program will work in all three 
modes as the short demo program listing 
shows. In Mode 0 you get double size 
characters, in Mode 1 you get double 
height characters, similarly in Mode 2. 

The program operates by intercepting 
the operating system's character output 
routine. The character codes 254 and 255 
are used to turn the routine on and off, 
and internally these are used to print a 
double height character as follows. If the 


routine is turned off, then the character 
to be printed is sent to the normal ROM 
routine. 

If the routine is on, then the matrix for 
the particular character is looked up in 
the ROM (or RAM if it is user defined l via 
an OS routine at bbas, which returns the 
start address of the matrix for the 
character in the ’A’ register in the HL 
register pair. This matrix is then copied 
to reserved RAM. but each line is copied 
twice — giving 16 lines in all. 

Character 254 is defined as the top 
eight lines, and character 255 is defined 
as the lower eight lines, by loading the 
ASCII code into the A register and the 
address of the matrix into HLand calling 
the OS routine at bbas. 

Having defined these characters, the 
cursor position is obtained by calling 


bb7s and moved up a line, the top of the 
character is printed — code 254, and 
then the cursor position is restored and 
the bottom half of the character — code 
255 is printed. 

Control codes are always printed as 
normal whether or not double height is 
on or off (so that they are not printed 
twice which could cause havoc). The 
exception to this is the line feed 
character, if this is printed, an extra line 
is skipped to account for the extra height 
of the characters. 

Although the software will work in 
direct mode, it is advisable to use it only 
from programs where you know where 
the output is being sent. Also note that 
lines input by the user will always be 
printed in normal height, regardless of 
whether the routine is on or off. V 


Listing 


10 ’ Double height Basic loader program 
20 MEMORY 41999 

30 FOR i =42000 TO 42189: READ a*:v-VAL("8< 
"+ a*>:csum*csum+v:POKE i,v:NEXT i 
40 IF csum <> 26226 THEN PRINT CHR*(7):P 
EN 2:PRINT"DATA Checksum ERROR - check 1 
isting'-:PEN 1:STOP 

50 CALL 42000:PRINT CHR*<233>:CLS 

60 DATA 2A,5B,BB,22,E1,A4,21,27,A4,22,3B 

,BB,3E, C3,32,3A, BB ,3E, CF, 32 

70 DATA E0,A4,C9,F5,E3,D5,C3,32,E4,A4,FE 

,20,38,33,FE,FF,20,07,3E,00 

80 DATA 32,E3,A4,18,25,FE,FE,20,07,3E,FF 

,32,E3,A4,18,1A,3A,E3,A4,FE 

90 DATA 00,28,08,3A,E4,A4,CD,79,A4,18,0B 

,C1,D1,E1,F1,3A,E4,A4,CD,E0 

100 DATA A4,C9,C1,D1,E1,F1,C9,FE,0A,20,E 

C, 3A,E3,A4,FE,00,28,E3,3E,0A 

110 DATA CD,E0,A4,18,DE,47,CD,A4,A4,CD,7 

8, BB,CD,87,BB,22,CE,A4,7D,FE 

120 DATA 01,20,04,2C,22,CE,A4,2D,CD,73,B 

B,3E,FE,CD,3D,BB,2A,CE,A4,CD 

130 DATA 73,BB,3E,FF,CD,E0,A4,C9,CD,06,B 

9, F3,78, CD, A3, BB,06,08, 11 , J}0 

140 DATA A4,7E,12,13,12,23,13,10,F8,F1,C 

D, 0C,B9,3E,FE,21,D0,A4,CD,A8 

150 DATA BB,3E,FF,21,D8,A4,CD,A8,BB,C9 
160 END 


PCN DECEMBERS 1984 






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23 






VERTICAL TAKEOFF 

I frraM C on u lw Marts off «g»—that dn witra to two of the Jttarft special fMtwrw. 


II DIN AI$(2I):D1N B2$(2I):DIN C3S12I) 

21 OPEN 11,4,1,*Ki* 

lit DIN UP*(21),DONNt(21):UP*ADR(UPf):DONN*ADR(DONNt) 

III FOR 100P*UP TO UP*2I:READ BYTE:POKE LOOP,BYTE:NEXT LOOP 
121 FOR L00P S D0MN TO D0NN*2I:READ BYTE:POKE L00P,BYTE:NEXT LOOP 
131 DATA 114,114,133,214,104,133,213, 168, 1,177 

141 DATA 213,134,145,213,2M,2M, 192,11,218,245,96 
151 DATA 114,114,133,214,184,133,213,161,II,177 
161 DATA 213,288,145,283,136,136,192,255,218,245,96 

161 POKE 53248,255:POKE 53249,255:GOSUB 20008 

162 POKE 53248,255:POKE 53249,255:SOUND l,l,l,l:60SUB 11818 

163 6RAPHICS It? ‘}‘:P0KE 755,I:SOUND I,1,1,I 

164 IF AU=1 THEN POSITION 5,5:? ‘AUTO PLAY.JOYSTICK NOT USED.' 

165 POSITION 11,7:’ ‘PLEASE NAIT“‘ 

178 PABE=PEEK(186)-8 

181 POKE 54279,PA6E 

191 BASE=PAGE *256 

211 POKE 53277,l:POKE 559,46 

211 POKE 7I4,175:P0KE 715,175 

221 FOR l s BASE*512 TO BASE*768:SOUND I,1/11,11,1I:SETC0L0R 2,1,1/11: 

SETCOLOR 4,1,1/11-5 
231 SOUND 1,1/11,II,18:P0KE 1,1:NEXT I 
235 SOUND I,I,I,I 
248 X*lM:Y-58 

251 POKE 53248,XsPOKE 53270,1 
255 RESTORE 281 

261 FOR 1=BASE*512*Y TO BASE*519*Y 

278 READ DA:POKE I,DA:NEXT I 

281 DATA 146,186,254,186,16,124,56,16 

291 Xl«X-ll:Yl»U2 

3H POKE 53249,X1:POKE 53257,3 

311 FOR I'BASE+648+Yl TO BASE+646+Y1 

321 READ DA:POKE I,DA:NEXT IsPOKE 53277,3 

331 DATA 255,129,255,129,255,129,255 

348 POKE 53278,1 

351 SEM5I 

371 Alt=* *:B2*=".“:C3**“ ‘ 

381 FOR T*1 TO 15:S0UND l,l,24,T:FOR 1=1 TO 28:NEXT I:NEXT T 

411 A‘STICK<I):IF PEEK(53252)=4 THEN 1118 

412 SE=SE-1:1F SE<8 THEN 1888 

415 RN=INT(RND(l)t4l)POSITION RM,23s? Al$;B2«;C3$ 

488 IF PEEK(532611>2 THEN 2888 

411 IF A=14 THEN U=USR(UP,BASE*511*Y):Y»Y-l:8OT0 481 

415 POKE 715,X 

417 IF AU*1 THEN A=INT(RND(I)«14):IF A<6 THEN AMJ 
421 IF A«13 THEN D=USR(D0NN,BASE*51UY):Y»Y*1:60T0 488 
441 IF A*7 THEN X=X*2:POKE 53248,X:P0KE 53249,X-18 
458 IF A*U THEN X=I-2:POKE 53248,X:POKE 53249,X-ll 
461 IF PEEK(53252)*4 THEN 1888 
471 IF PEEK(532611>2 THEN 2188 

*81 IF A=5 THEN D*USR(OONN,BASE*511»V):Y=Y*1:X=I*2:POKE 53248,X:POKE 53249,X-ll 
498 IF A*9 THEN D=USR(OOMN,BASE+511♦¥»:Y»Y*1:X**-2:POKE 53248,X:POKE 53249,1-11: 
GOTO 488 

518 IF A*15 THEN POSITION 7,3:? ‘SECONDS LEFT«‘;SE 


T his simple game demonstrates two 
of the Atari’s programming fea¬ 
tures — Player Missile Graphics 
(PMGs) and Display List Interrupts 
(DLIs). 

The program is best understood if it’s 
broken down into its three main parts: 
PMG, DLI and sound. Two parts of the 
program may be new to you — vertical 
positioning and DLI/mixed modes. 

You’ve probably seen articles explain¬ 
ing PMGs and their usefulness in 
collision detection, priorities and move¬ 
ment of players and missiles. 

The program here covers some of this 
territory, but it details another aspect of 
PMGs — vertical positioning and move¬ 
ment. On the Atari, vertical movement 
from Basic is slower than horizontal 
movement because there are no vertical 
positioning registers for PMGs, so the 
program incorporates a machine code 
routine for moving PMGs vertically. 

It will move players up to nine pixels 
deep, but if you want larger players the 
number 11 in line 140 should be changed 
to two larger than the number of vertical 
lines the player uses. Then change the 
10 in line 150 to one greater than the 
number of additional lines. 


You can move any player by changing 
the number 511 in the USR calls in the 
joystick routine to one less than the start 
address of the object to be moved. If 
player 1 was to be moved the USR 
command would look like this: 
U-USRlUP.PMBASE+639+Y): Y-Y+l 
and for player 2: 

U«USR<UP.PMBASE + 767+l>:Y+Y-l 
The Y represents the variable used to 
move your players down the screen. You 
should note that the PMBASE variable 


II Variables 


SE 

seconds remaining 

RN 

random positioning of 

the stars 

X 

horizontal positioning of 
player 0 

Y 

vertical positioning of 
player 0 

XI 

horizontal positioning of 
player 1 

P 

vertical positioning of 
player 1 

A1$.B2$.C3$ stars 

T 

timer 

DUST 

mainly used as a variable 
in the FOR NEXT loops 

display list 

SCREEN 

mainly used for postition 
ofGR.O indisplay list 


PCN DECEMBER221984 


Listing (cont) 


518 SOTO 488 

1IM FOR I*BASE+512*Y TO 8ASE+519+Y 
UK SOUND l,A f 2,lS 
1186 SETCOLOR 2.1.A 
1118 READ A:IF A*1 THEN 1861 
1828 POKE I,A:NEXT I 

1838 DATA 129,255,128,45,87,33,67,96,22,68,85,35,35,35,75,82,66,36,129,255,88, 

1148 MTA^VkIm,97* 159,98,255,12,16,24,15,129,199,188,24,16,33,93,17,4,27, 
15,68,98,62,158,55,79,42,69,1 
1858 60T0 1888 
1855 FOR T«1 TO 288:NEXT T 

1868 RESTORE 113B:P0KE 53277,8:SOUND 8,•,8,8:6RAPHICS 2*16:P0KE 53248,255:POKE 
53249,255 

1888 POSITION 1,4:? 86;'YOU FAILED TO DOCK* 

1898 X«INT(RND<8>*4I*1:0N I SOSUB 1138,1148,1158,1168 
1188 POSITION 2,8:? »6;'HAVE ANOTHER 80" 

1118 FOR I»1 TO 248:SETCOLOR 4,1,1:SETCOLOR l,l,I*15:SOUND 8 , 1,1,18:NEXT I 

1128 SOUND S,8,a,S:F0R T*1 TO 588:NEXT T:60T0 161 

1138 POSITION 8,6:? *6;'AT LEAST YOU TRIED 1 ":RETURN 

1148 POSITION 4,6:? 86;' NICE TRY 1 '•:RETURN 

1158 POSITION 2,6:? 86;'COULD BE NORSE 1 ":RETURN 

1168 POSITION 2,6:? 86;'NHAT CAN I SAY' 5 ':RETURN 

2888 POKE 53277,0:GRAPHICS 18:RESTORE 2858:S0UND 0,B,8,0:P0KE 53248,255:POKE 
53249,255 

2818 FOR 1=8 TO 63:REA0 R 
2828 POKE 1664+1,R:NEXT I 
2848 REH COLORS*» 

2858 DATA 173,36,2,141,193 


may change from program to program — 
it sometimes appears as M YPM BASE or 
BASE, depending on the programmer’s 
preference. Missiles are more difficult to 
move vertically with this routine since it 
moves an entire byte, not bits. It would 
come in handy when moving all four 
missiles vertically if you needed to do so, 
but they can still be moved horizontally 
individually. rl 


Next week As Orrall Cornelius 
completes his games listing, you’ll 
see a demonstration of display lists 
in action, with three modes on the 
screen at once. 


Listing (cont) 


2868 DATA 6,173,37,2,141,194 

2878 DATA 6,168,188,162,6,169 

2888 DATA 7,32,92,228,238,192 

2898 DATA 6,173,192,6,141,18 

2188 DATA 212,141,26,288,174 

2118 DATA 252,2,232,248,238 

2128 DATA 172,193,6,179,194,6 

2138 DATA 169,7,32,92,228 

2148 DATA 184,96,286,2N,2 

2158 DATA 173,288,2,141,192 

2168 DATA 6,76,98,228 

2178 POSITION 5,3:? 86;'AT LAST!!" 

2188 POSITION 1,6:? 86;'YOU’VE HADE IT 

2165 RESTORE 2288 




ews, Cai 
3) 67767 (4 I 


For those of you who 
wish to use, at low cost, 
VIEWDATA, TELEX. 
ELECTRONIC MAIL, 

or even use your micro 
as a Vicwdata/Tclcx 
terminal. 

AT LAST, CmiL is a 
unique company dealing 
with the many applications 
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support. 

Use Our Experience. 
We Can Help! 


T alk to Greg, Malcolm or Ben at Cytcl. 




















ARDWARE: CORTEX 2 


ost, if not all electronics enthu¬ 
siasts will have heard of Power- 
tran Cybernetics (previously 
Powertran Electronics). Over the past 
few years they have produced many 
high-quality kits. 

In 1982 Powertran released the Cor¬ 
tex, a low cost 16-bit micro with a real 
sting in the tail. On specifications alone, 
the system is up there with the best. 
Based on the Texas 9995 micro¬ 
processor, running at an astonishing 
12MHz, the Cortex out-benchmarks 
almost all the popular microcomputers. 
Other features include 64K of RAM. 
high-resolution colour graphics with 
sprites, a floppy disk interface, serial 
and parallel ports, and an expansion bus 
known as the Ebus. 

A few months back the Cortex was 
withdrawn for a refit, now the system is 
sold with a new smarter, slimline look 
and has been christened the Cortex 2. 

For those of you adept with a soldering 
iron, good eyesight and a great 
deal of patience, the system 
comes as a kit. For those more 
prone to melt the table top rather 
than the solder, a ready-built and 
tested version is also available. 

First impressions 

The changes made to Cortex 1 to 
produce Cortex 2 are apparent as 
soon as you set eyes on the machine. 

The new model has a slimline look 
solely due to the removal of the full 
height floppy disk drives. The new 
model has half height drives in a 
separate cabinet which sits on top of 
the main unit. These drives are 
connected to the computer via two 
leads. The first is the low voltage power 
lead which plugs in at the back, the 
second is the 34-way ribbon cable which 
plugs in the side. 

The cabinet is made of sheet metal, 
sprayed in light grey. The metal adds to 
the weight but still leaves it lighter than 
some so-called portables. The one thing 
to be said for metal cases is the added 
strength it provides. 

Hardware 

Towards the front of the machine are 
situated the keyboard, a number of LED 
indicators and two push button switch¬ 
es. The LEDs are marked; RUN, IDLE, 
MAP, and TIME and are dealt with in 
the 'In use' section as are the two 
switches marked RESET and RE¬ 
START. 

The keyboard itself is of a simple 
construction with the minimum of (Tills. 
The main section contains all the 
standard alphanumeric keys, 55 in total . 
There is also a nine-key keypad contain¬ 
ing cursor keys and various editing keys 
which are used by the Basic line editor. 

Various connectors are apparent 
around the outside of the case but, 
unfortunately, there are no markings on 
the case itself to describe their function. 


Working from the circuit diagrams 
and the PCB overlay diagrams, the 
following should be correct descriptions. 
On the right-hand side front are located 
the two connectors which make up the 
serial system. A 5-pin DIN socket is used 
to communicate with the cassette recor¬ 
der (Powertran recommend a WH Smith 
model). 

A 25-way ’D’ type connector is used to 
interface the unit with any standard 
RS232 serial device. A 34-pin I DC 
conncetor is used to connect the new disk 
unit. This connector should really be on 
the rear of the system with the power 
supply connector and not in its current 
position on the right-hand side. Power¬ 
tran supplies two types of disk unit for 
the Cortex with 125K or 1Mb unformat¬ 
ted capacities offered on single sided 
single density or double sided double 
density drives respectively. 

At the rear of the unit are located the 
video outputs for both the UHF (a TV 
set) and RGB (optional extra) displays, 
in addition to the disk power supply 
connector. 


The only other connector is the 'D' 
pe for the Ebus and is situated 
iis time on the left of the machine. 
Tiis allows the machine to com- 
nunicate with standard Eurobus 
expansion boards. On previous 
versions of the Cortex, the Ebus 
was not available due to design 
problems but I am assured that 
this one works properly. 

Documentation 

These manuals are certainly not of the 
highest standard but they are readable 
and that’s what counts. Three manuals 
make up the system documentation: a 
user manual, the disk operating system 
manual, and a construction manual if 
you’re buying in kit-form. The user 
manual is written on the assumption 
that you actually built the system. No 
mention is made of the connectors or 
indicators which is a shame because 
some people will buy the ready-built 
version and will not be familiar with the 
system. What it does have is an in-depth 
description of Cortex Basic. 

The construction manual is a photo¬ 
copy of the original article which 
appeared in Electronics Today Interna¬ 
tional as appears to be the norm with 
Powertran kits. This is quite adequate 
as it not only deals with descriptions and 
construction but also has an item on 'how 
it works' for each section of the project. 

Construction 

There is no reason why a system built 
from a kit should look any different from 
a professionally built machine. All 
components supplied to make up the 


PCN DECEMBER221984 


















Cortex are of a high standard and if 
constructed properly give the desired 
high-quality appearance. 

But taking on the task of actually 
building a kit that's as complex as the 
Cortex involves certain skills not nor¬ 
mally associated with the average com¬ 
puter end user. The most important of 


these is the ability to use a soldering 
iron; though identifying and handling of 
components is also important. Another 
factor, almost as important as the 
soldering skills, is patience. Don’t expect 
to sit down and build the system in one 
session; it is possible but not recom¬ 
mended . A simple rule of thumb to follow 



Disk InteHoce 




is that the more time you spend on 
building the system, the more likely you 
are to have a finished product that 
works. 

One of the first things you notice when 
looking at the Cortex PCB is that all the 
integrated circuits are socketed. There 
are two schools of thought on this subject 
(ignoring the obvious increase in cost) 
for it can be argued that sockets don’t 
provide a good electrical contact for long 
periods. This is true, but in this case, 
matters such as ease of construction, 
repair and modification of the board far 
outweigh the disadvantage of having to 
re-seat a chip occasionally. 

While building a project from a kit, it’s 
surprising how much one learns about 
that project. This knowledge then builds 
confidence to take on the task of taking 
on a hardware modification. A socket 
system gives such an option and is a 
facility rarely available to the average 


The construction of the review system 
was excellent except for one small detail. 
Whoever built this system broke one 
basic rule ofassembly, ie to make sure all 
cables which connect between the main 
unit and the lid of the system are long 
enough for the lid to be removed and 
placed to one side. Of course the system 
must still be able to operate with the lid 
removed. In this case, only the LEDs, 
reset buttons and two power supply 
regulators are mounted on the lid and it 
was the cables running to the LEDs that 
was cut too short. 


Processors 


The system itself is based on the Texas 


29^ 


PCN DECEMBER221984 


27 













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PCN DECEMBERS 1984 


























ARDWARE PRO TEST: CORTEX 2 


Instruments TMS9995, probably an 
unfamiliar microprocessor to most us¬ 
ers. It was in fact one of the first true 
16-bit microprocessors. It has one main 
drawback which is a limited memory 
addressing range. It can only address 
32Kwords < 16-bit) which is the equiva¬ 
lent of 64K bytes. These days, this seems 
a very small amount when compared 
with the 8086 (IMb) and the 68000 
(16Mb) though it is still the same as the 
Z80 and the 6502. 

It does on the other hand, have a very 
high clock speed of 12MHz which is 
faster than all these processors (stan¬ 
dard models only) which leads to a very 
fast machine. 

Video on the Cortex is handled by the 
TMS9928 video processor. This chip has 
its own 16K of memory lead¬ 
ing to a graphics resolution of 
256x192 with 16 colours on 
the screen at one time. 

Also implemented on the 
9928 is a sprite capability 
with up to 256 being allowed. 

These sprites can be defined 
as an 8x8 or 16x16 (64 
sprites only) pixel grid. An 
option to magnify these is also 
available. The command 
MAG0 maps each sprite pixel 
to one pixel on the screen, 
while the command magi 
maps each sprite pixel on to a 
2x2 grid on the screen thus 
allowing a single sprite to fill a 32x32 
grid on the screen. As is usual with 
sprites, software is available to check for 
collision between sprites while hard¬ 
ware within the video processor takes 
care of which sprite is 'in front’ of any 
other when displayed. 

One very interesting feature of the 
graphics processor is that one colour is 
defined, not as a colour, but as transpa¬ 
rent. This allows the background colour 
to be seen 'through' the sprite. 

The idea of one image being in front of 
another is possible because of the way in 
which the 9928 implements its graphics. 


PRIORITIZED DISPLAY 
PLANES 



external 

VIDEO 

BACKDROP 

/ PATTERNS 

CHARACTER ORIENTED! 


The screen can be thought of as 36 planes 
on top ofeach other—rather like placing 
36 photographic slides on top of each 
other and looking through them. Thus a 
sprite placed on plane 8 would cover an 
image of a sprite on plane 9. 

One of the 36 planes is set aside for an 
external video expansion board. This 
board mixes a video signal from, for 
example, a video recorder with that of 
the computer. Thus it is possible, albeit 
difficult, to do things such as make a car 
in a video game hit a real wall. 

Because the graphics memory is 
separate from the user memory the 


TWt i* bow th« sprite plane* are organised. The 
external video plane allows you to put in a video 


system still provides the full 64K bytes 
for use. Well, nearly all, as a small area 
of memory is set aside for memory 
mapped I/O allocation. 

Firmware 

Basic comes as standard on the system 
and is stored in ROM along with the 
system monitor. All firmware is held in 
3x8K EPROMs which, again, are not 
part of the main memory map. Instead, 
these EPROMs are known as phantom 
memory. 

When the system is first powered up, 
the dynamic RAMs are checked for 







ARDWARE PRO-TEST: CORTEX 2 


◄ 29'-correct operation and then the contents 
of the EPROMs are copied into RAM. 
This allows far greater system flexibil¬ 
ity because Basic can be overwritten if 
the system is running 9995 machine 
code only. 

Though Basic is the language fitted 
with all new systems, it is possible to 
change the language simply by replac¬ 
ing the EPROMs. Two other languages 
are presently available for the Cortex. 
The first is fig-Forth (available from 
Lombard Systems of Bedford). The 
language comes on two 8K EPROMs, 
which replace the first two Basic ROMs. 
To enhance the Forth package, a utili¬ 
ties disk is also available containing an 
editor and various I/O utilities. 

For those who don't wish to replace the 
Basic ROMs permanently, Forth is also 
available on an auto run disk with all the 
utilities included. With this version, the 
Basic 'boot' command is used to load 
Forth on top of the Basic interpreter. 
UCSD Pascal P-code system is also 
available. This includes the operating 
system, full screen editor, assembler, 
compiler and debugger. Further exten¬ 
sions allow multi-tasking and support 
for extended addressing via the Ebus 
which will allow a full megabyte of 
memory to be accessed. All very nice, I 
hear you P-code followers thinking. 
True, except that it weighs in at £535. 
With the standard Cortex kit at £300, it 
does seem a bit excessive. 

Software 

A number of companies are now offering 
software which will run on.the Cortex, 
and Powertran itself has commissioned 
an independent software house to write 
a new disk operating system. 

Microprocessor Engineering (0703- 
775482) offers a number of software 
packages which run on the Cortex. 
MDEX is a disk operating system with a 
disk-based version of Basic which is 
similar to Microsoft Basic. EDIT is an 
editor based upon a number of main¬ 
frame-based editors including SOS. 
RESCUE is a set of three programs for 
processor, memory and disk diagnostics. 
It also includes a disk editor/ recovery 
program. SPL is a systems program¬ 
ming language similar to ’C’ for which a 
ROM-based nucleus is being developed. 

This is by no means a full list and 
needless to say, a number of games are 
also available. No doubt, more will be 
made available after the competition 
that Powertran ran in its August 
newsletter. Though this was the first 
Cortex user group newsletter it seems 
that they will run about every three 
months, as the next was due in 
December. 

Topics include all the latest updates in 
both hardware and software, plus hints 
and tips from present Cortex owners. 
Well done, Powertran—I’m all in favour 
of companies that keep close ties with 
their user groups. 



Tlw dual disk drive is designed to sH neotty on top 

In use 

There should be few problems with using 
Cortex Basic For the first time user. But 
those familiar with standard Microsoft 
Basic may take a little time to get used to 
it. Contained within the Basic is a line 
orientated editor which is initiated 
whenever a syntax error is encountered. 
Being brought up on a version of Basic 
totally devoid of editing facilities, I 
normally retype the whole line auto¬ 
matically so using this type of editor is 
quite a luxury. 

The Basic itself is excellent allowing 
auto line numbering, renumbering, 
definition of sprites and allowing 16 
parameters to be passed to a machine 
code routine, to name but a few of its 
many facilities. 

On the system disk supplied by 
Powertran were three simple demo 
programs, all using sprites. The sprite 
moving sections of the demos were 
smooth and fast considering that they 
were in Basic, obviously another pointer 
to the overall speed of the system. 

When coming out of a program I 
noticed that the text on the screen was 
different to that displayed when I loaded 
it. This is because the Cortex works in 
two distinct modes, text and graphics. 
When in text the normal 24 x 40display 
is used, but when in graphics mode the 
characters are actually plotted onto the 
screen, thus allowing only 24 x 32 
characters on the screen. Typing the 
command 'text’ is all that’s required to 
swap back to text mode. 

Though the system itself is fast, the 
disk drives themselves are quite slow. 
Together with this, the disk operating 
system is cumbersome and long-winded 
to use. I won’t delve any deeper into the 


Specifications 


of the macMee. 

workings of this particular DOS as it is 
in the process of being replaced. 

As mentioned previously, there are a 
number of LED indicators on the top of 
the case. The first two show how much of 
the time the system is actually running 
code and how long it is sitting idle. The 
MAP LED shows when memory mapped 
I/O is taking place. The final one, 
marked TIME, flashes continually and I 
could find no details about it. None were 
given in the construction manual so I 
assume this was not available on the 
Cortex 1. 

Verdict 

Building from a kit, in this case, offers a 
cheap way to obtain a powerful and 
versatile micro, but it must be said that 
it is not just putting pieces together 
jig-saw fashion. 

Buying the Cortex 2, in whatever 
form, must be looked on as something of 
a challenge. The reason for this is that a 
lot of software development has to be 
done by the user because it cannot be 
bought off the shelf. Incompatibly is the 
main cause. Though there are a small 
number of other9900 series machi nes on 
the market, each is a small fish in a large 
ocean compared with the likes of Com¬ 
modore, Acorn and Sinclair. So don’t 
expect a new game or package to appear 
every week, because it won’t. Software is 
being written, but not in vast quantities. 

Though the Cortex is primarily a 
home computer, there is no reason why it 
should not become a small business 
micro if relevant software were to 
become available. 

The disk capacity is large enough, the 
speed is more than ample, and printer 
ports and high-resolution graphics are 
also included. W\ 


Basic kit £299, built £399, £1,195 with all the options 

TMS9995 12MHz 

24K for Basic and Monitor 

64K plus 16K for graphics 

24 x 40 text, 256 x 192 graphics 

64 keys including nine key keypad 

RGB, Centronics, Ebus, Floppy disks external video input 

Powertran Cybernetics 0264-64455 


30 


PCN DECEMBER 221984 







100% GRAPHIC EXPLORATION 


SOFTWARE 


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PCN DECEMBER221984 


33 





HRISTMAS SPECIAL 


AWARDS 


Category 1 

We kick off with awards for 
marketing and image-making. 

Shirley Temple Award 

For the most photogenic abuse 
of a juvenile, Ericsson wins the 
prize for its recent TV advertis¬ 
ing campaign. 

Dumbo Award 

A clear winner — Commodore 
for the most photogenic abuse of 
an elephant. 

Oliver Cromwell Award 

This goes to the company show¬ 
ing greatest abuse of royalty. 
Another clear winner — Bad 
Taste Software for Di’s Baby. 

Saatchi and Saatchi Gilded 
Mirror 

This magnificent prize for im¬ 
age manipulation was closely 
contested, but finally thejudges 
plumped for Apple UK for its 
recent campaign. Apple nar¬ 
rowly defeated ACT which had 
gone to staggering lengths to 
look good. The decisive 
was Apple's failure to sell 
puters. 

Attila the Hun Award 

A walkover here for IBM as the 
company most likely to take 
over the world. Commodore 
indicated a desire to enter, but 
was ruled out for not having 
what it takes. IBM has long 
since established a near 
monopoly on essentials such 
as ruthlessness and money. 

Tin Bushel 

A utilitarian trophy, beneath 
which the winners can hide 
their light. For the company 
doing the least to promote its 
products, the bushel goes to 
Memotech. Enterprise Compu¬ 
ters staged a late challenge on 
the grounds that it couldn't do 
less to promote a computer than 


Everybody's doing it — giving awards that is. Oscars, 
Grammys, Emmys. Nobody can beat showbiz for people 
telling other people how wonderful they were. 

At PCN we thought the computer industry had done a 
number of wonderful things so we’ve instituted an awards 
scheme of our own. But computing being what it is, we’ve 
spu rned excel lence and tu rned to the heart of the computing 
scene — the blunders, the ill luck and the occasional sheer 
incompetence. 

At PCNwe're big enough to own up toour mistakes. So it is 
in that spirit that we announce the first annual Personal 
Computing News Christmas Turkeys presentation. 

The judging took place at a glittering ceremony in the back 
room of a pub where the judges cast their gaze far and wide 
in search of deserving winners. Ladies and gentlemen, The 
Turkeys... 


ruled the entry out of order. 

Most Promising Newcomer 

To Acorn for the Electron, 
because any machine that can 
remain 'promising' over a year 
after launch deserves special 
recognition. Another entry by 
Enterprise was disqualified on 
the grounds that while it has 
promised more than anyone, it 
can’t be classed a newcomer 
until it sells a machine. 

The Golden Boot 

Awarded for the best own goal 
of the season. The two finalists, 
Acorn and Sinclair, fought into 
extra time when Acorn took a 
decisive lead. Sinclair possibly 


scored the larger number, but 
flair and style counts for more. 
The way Acornsoft let the 
Spectrum rights to Elite slip 
through its fingers had the 
judges chantingon the terraces. 

Category 2 

The next group is the heart of 
the Christmas Turkey Awards. 
In an industry renowned for 
such cliches as 'cutting edge', 
'state of the art’ and 'fast- 
moving', competition was fier¬ 
cest for the following awards. 

Big Ben Trophy 

Awarded to Psion for the Orga¬ 
niser. deemed to be 'the largest 
ever multi-function wrist- 
watch. 


Arnold Schwarzenegger Award 

For contributions to portable 
computing. A closely contested 
category which resulted in 
several judges receiving phy¬ 
siotherapy after testing. The 
eventual winner was Sperry for 
its entry which weighed in at a 
dislocating 391bs. 

Toney Canyon Trophy 

For the most spectacular crash, 
the judges did not hesitate to 
name Imagine, despite strong 
competition from Cam puters’ 
Lynx and Jupiter Cantab. Dra- 

S n Data also featured, but was 
t to have put in too much 
practice and peaked too early. 

Ford Model T Award 

This valuable trophy for techi- 
nical innovation is shared 
among the manufacturers who 
participated in MSX. 

Blooper Prize for Fiction 

A difficult decision since the 
judges were overwhelmed with 
entries. However, most turned 
out to be fact and the decision 
finally went to famous software 
house Joe the Lion for its 
Spectrum emulator for the QL. 
Announced at the QL’s launch, 
the emulator has yet to appear. 

Channel Tunnel Award 

This is the premier award of the 
Christmas Turkeys, presented 
to the company getting most 
mileage out of a product that 
doesn't exist. A shock result 
here as hot favourite Enter¬ 
prise was disqualified after a 
stewards' inquiry following 
allegations that Personal Com¬ 
puter World had seen an Enter¬ 
prise computer. Although the 
claim was hotly disputed, the 
judges ruled that the Enter¬ 
prise may exist on some other 
plane of reality. This left the 
field clear for Legend to romp 
home with The Great Space 
Race. The trophy itself, a 
stretch of water with a hole in it, 
will be presented at a ceremony 
timed to coincide with the 
opening of the Channel Tunnel. 
Finally, a special award. 

Pfnnochio Trophy 

This goes to Sinclair Research 
for its denial of Spectrum de¬ 
velopments 48 hours before the 
Spectrum Plus launch. The 
prize is a nose job by a top plastic 
surgeon. 


34 


PCN DECEMBERS 1984 





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PCN DECEMBERS 1984 







SIX FROM 
EIGHTH 


It’s been quite a day, let me tell 
you. Fortified by just a bowl of 
cornflakes I had to start by 
saving America which had been 
devastated by a bacteriological 
disaster. Then, after a short 
break for coffee, 1 was wrestl i ng 
with Stirling, the international 
terrorist, who was threatening 
to wipe out New York if he 
didn’t get his billion dollar 
ransom. 

As this exceeded my limit at 
the NatWest Service till I left 
him to it, only to find that one of 
Britain's early warning attack 
satellites had gone missing. Of 
course I had to step into the 
breach and deal with that 
before I felt I’d earned my lunch 
time pie and pint. 

The afternoon, if anything, 
was worse. 1 had to battle with 
the might of the evil corrupt 
Empire on behalf of the Federa¬ 
tion, though this was as nothing 
compared to doing battle with 
the might of my nanny in order 
to break out of the playpen and 
find a new arm for tattered old 
teddy. 

Finally, I entered a magical 
world of fairies and grottoes in 
the traditional hunt for trea¬ 
sure, without which no adven¬ 
turer’s day is complete. 

The blame for my day of 
mayhem and monsters lies fair 
and square with 8th Day Soft¬ 
ware, which has just released 
the first six in its series called 
'Games Without Frontiers’, all 
written with The Quill for the 
48K Spectrum and all selling at 
the incredible price of £1.75 
(including postage, from 8th 
Day Software, 18 Flaxhill, 
Moreton, Wirral, Merseyside 
L46 7UH). 

Cheap but good 

As with the recent batch of 
cut-rate arcade software, cheap 
prices don’t necessarily mean 
inferior quality. It was hearten¬ 
ing to load these adventures up 
and discover that the general 
standard was very high indeed, 
catering for a range of prefer¬ 
ences and ability levels. 

Don’t expect glossy packag¬ 
ing for that price, though the 
cassette covers look smart with 
their uniform black back¬ 
ground and silver lettering. 
Another standard feature is the 
inclusion on the B-side of each 
cassette of the storyline for the 


Mikt Gerard It left breat hless alter playing this latest batch of adventures. 


adventure you’ve bought, and 
of the others in the series, with a 
few pages on the playing of 
adventure games in general. 
Each adventure is graded as 
beginner's, moderate or adv¬ 
anced, and hint sheets or indi¬ 
vidual clues are available from 
8th Day. 

This thorough and profes¬ 
sional approach would be 
wasted, of course, if the adven¬ 
tures themselves were dismal 
efforts, but they're far from 
being that. Even the beginner’s 
game proved pretty tough going 
in places. 

Floe and the kids 

This is Ice Station Zero, whose 
loading screen for some reason 
shows a pterodactyl flying over 
an iceberg. I could understand a 

? >lar bear, huskies and even a 
eti in the icy wastes, but a 
pterodactyl? This is the one 
with mad Stirling and the 
billion dollar ransom, and you 
have to cross the Arctic ice-cap 
to get to him. 

You begin outside a small 
snow-covered tent on the west¬ 
ern edge of an immense ice-field 
with a pack of wolves howling 
across the frozen plains. 
Though there are a few items in 
the tent, the means to defend 
yourself against the wolves 
(and their newly acquired strik¬ 
er) is carefully hidden away 
somewhere for you to find. 

Little graphics touches are 
possible when using The Quill, 
such as when you examine gun 
which shows you the number of 
bullets remaining, while fire 
gun produces a couple of bullet- 
holes either side of the screen. 

Can you escape the polar bear 
and the Yeti, what happens if 
you remove your clothing 
(known as losing your Kagool) 
and how do you make the air 
turn blue? The storyline of this 
one is full of healthy nonsense 
but the standard of the text is 
very high, as with most of this 
series. 

From Yeti to Nanny and the 
moderately difficult Cuddles, 
described as an adventure for 
big kids. Pack the nappies, 
examine the potty and plot your 
route for finding a new arm for 
teddy, who you thoughtlessly 
left up a tree. 


As you move round the 
nursery you find coloured 
building blocks, each with a 
different letter on it — and no, 
they don’t spell out a rude word. 
But woe betide the player who 
searches the nappy cupboard 
without nasal protection. 


In Search of Angels, an espion¬ 
age thriller. You very soon find 
yourself at an airport where the 
girl on the desk asks you for 
your destination. Only by look¬ 
ing at the Hint Sheet can you 
discover your possible destina¬ 
tions of exotic locations — such 



Is let Station you Imv# your tent to ItgM hungry wohe*. 


Nuclear ’n naughty 

From the nursery to nuclear 
war with Four Minutes to Mid¬ 
night, which opens in dramatic 
style. 'You are on the forecourt 
of a small gas station beside 
several neglected gasoline 
pumps. There is a small road 
running to the east while the 
garage fronting is west. You 
can also see a dusty mini-bus. A 
car is careering down the road 
towards the station.' Needless 
to say you don’t have many 
turns before 'The car hits the 
pumps! With a massive explo¬ 
sion the station erupts in a ball 
of flames!’ You too, of course. 

Unfortunately a slight lack of 
care over the inputs means that 
it’s virtually impossible to get 
through the first few moves 
properly. You can stop the car 
exploding but it still burns, and 
you have to respond to the 
driver’s pleas for help by some¬ 
how rescuing him. 

You’re told his name is Dave, 

but GET DAVE, CARRY DAVE, HEI.P 

dave and so on all fail to work. 
Eventually my patience ran out 
and I cheated to discover I 
should have typed recruit 
dave. Hmmmm ... bit naugh¬ 
ty. that. 

Also naughty is a routine in 


as Rio, Casablanca, Berlin, 
Tokyo and London. 

Once you know where you 
can go, however, you can move 
around the world trying to piece 
together clues about the lost 
early warning satellite and the 
dead CIA agent floating in the 
River Thames. 

Space ’n Faeris 

Naturally there had to be a 
sci-fi story in this batch. Quann 
Tulla is vaguely in the Snow¬ 
ball tradition of space ships, 
robots, security doors, secret 
manuals and so on. The fate of 
the Universe is in your hands!' 
My reaction to that was blunt 
and brief, and I was promptly 
told: 'Hygiene Clone II appears 
from nowhere with a bar of soap 
to clean out your mouth!’ 

Finally Faeri, an advanced 
difficulty game whose plot 
twists and turns so much that 
it’s hard to describe. You’re in a 
fantasy world, looking for trea¬ 
sure. with the guardians of the 
Underworld and Overworld out 
to prevent you from doing that. 
There are 30 main treasures 
and an additional three Sacred 
Treasures. 

8th Day reckons this one will 
keep you busy for the next six 
months. W\ 


PCN DECEMBERS 19M 




Hie BBC Micro is onlyl6long. 
But it stretches indefinitely 


o ne 


v V -\\)*‘d make it 


It stretc’hes into schools where BBC Basie and the Econet netv^ 




^Pres^ anrf T e / ( 


Monitoring, 













The BBC Microcomputer SystemThe worlds best 
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ERIPHERALS: PRINTER 


■WITCHflB ILITY FROM 

SHINWA^^H 


Despite her tussles with the manual, Leah Batham 
_ still admires the CPA-80 printer's 


down dip switch options and its 


price—just £ 229 . 


W hen the CPA-80 (Compute Mate 
100) arrived in PCATs office the 
standard comment was: 'Ah, 
another Shinwa Epson lookalike.’ From 
its original CP-80, Shinwa CTI has 
developed another possible winner, 
especially with a £228.85 price-tag. It 
does, however, face stiffer competition 
than its predecessor. 


The printer ribbon is encased in a 
large cassette that slips into place 
relatively easily. The one provided with 
the machine was a carbon ribbon which 
still hasn’t run out, despite innumerable 
test-runs. 

A flap on top of the machine, with the 
CPA-80 logo on it, conceals a collection 
of 12 dip switches. With the first seven 


Like other printers, the default is on-1 ine 
rather than off-line. 

In operation the printer is relatively 
quiet and doesn’t produce excesive 
vibrations despite its speed of 100 cps. 
The print quality is good, especially in 
emphasised mode. 

A11 the dip switch controlled functions 
can also be software selected, making it 


/ (>* + ,-. /0J234t>6/89i i < s /yiitoBCDLhtiHIJ KLr'lNOPQRSlUWX'fZC \ J" abcdelgh / j k Inno 

Dqrstuvwxyzi /)'—1 IlflM-H-H I- -I In u n <-» = l=« 

OH *. /01234S6/39 1 i < = /■'QAtiCDLHjH iJ KLHNOPQHb/UVVIX9 2C\J~ abcdef ghi jk Inno 
oqrstuvwxyzC/ 1 | ||fl«M+^H V -1 ln u n T>k->^ll« 0 - 

——I I I I IN- I—*■ S 

OH*. / OJ 23456/39 i } < = r'ISfUiCDLFGH 1J KLfINOPQRST UVUXYZf \ J'' _’ abed el gh / J k Inno 
oqrstuvwxyzC / )' — I 111 M ■-H—rH K-l In ^ n «=l 

——111 1s 


In addition to copin« with several differ** language. - and symbol* - the Shinwa CPA-80 can also handle everyth ing from the Greek alphabet to graphic*. 


Setting up 

The printer itself is a beige and brown 
plastic box about 5in high with an 
almost square footprint. It isn’t small, 
but it is light. A semi-transparent 
’smoked’ plastic cover conceals the 
printing area. The paper feeds in the 
back from the wire paper guide and out 
through a slit in the top. 

The review model had a parallel 
interface which accepted an Epson 
connector. A serial interface model is 
also available for an additional £23. 
Detailed specifications and circuit dia¬ 
grams for both interfaces are contained 
in the manual. 


t h t • 1 m vnlar^vd mod* 



The usual on-line, form feed and line 
feed buttons are provided in the stan¬ 
dard Epson-style location — to the right 
of the printing area. 

The CPA-80 takes single sheet or 
fan-fold paper. The tractor feed is 
unusual in that it feeds paper to the 
platen from behind rather than pulling 
it out from above. After the initial 
surprise, this proved easy to use and 
reliable. It also has the advantage that 
you can tear off a sheet without ha ving to 
run the perforation through the tractor 
feed first, so you save on paper. 


switches it is possible to select normal or 
emphasised printing mode, form length, 
l/8in or l/6in line spacing, 80 or 142 
character line length (the latter is for 
condensed mode), and a normal or 
slashed zero. The option to hardware 
select emphasised print is a particularly 
appealing feature. 

Switches 8 to 12 determine the 
character set, which can be selected for a 
variety of languages. These can be 
combined with a range of graphics 
characters, the Japanese Kana symbols, 
the Greek alphabet or italic letters. 

Documentation 

This is the CPA-80’s weakest point 
though it could easily have been its 
strongest. The manual contains every¬ 
thing the user could possibly wish to 
know about every aspect of the printer, 
but it suffers severely from the common 
J apanese problem of inadeq uate grasp of 
the English language. 

However, the fun stops when you try to 
wrestle some sensible information out of 
the gobbledegook. If it wasn’t for the 
excellent diagrams I would never have 
been able to load the paper, let alone 
print out an article. 

Almost every application described is 
accompanied by example programs in 
Basic. They must be adapted to the 
machine, but this usually isn’t too 
difficult. Where language fails, these 
programs make up the deficit — an 
example others should follow. 

In use 

Turning on the CPA-80 I noticed that 
the on-line light came on immediately. 


possible to use several of the options in 
one document. In addition a vast array of 
different functions are available via 
control codes including: line spacing in 
increments of 1/216in; text format 
such as vertical and horizontal tabula¬ 
tion; enlarged, condensed, double¬ 
strike, Elite, Pica, underlined and pro¬ 
portional printing modes; superscripts 
and subscripts; and much more. 

Both 8-bit and 9-bit dot image modes 
can also be selected, so graphics created 
on screen can with the right software be 
dumped to the printer. The 8-bit dot 
image mode can easily be switched from 
single density to double density. Unfor¬ 
tunately the sample programs in this 
section of the manual were slightly 
ambiguous and I couldn’t get all of them 
to work. 

Verdict 

The range of features on the CPA-80 
would be impressive on a more expen¬ 
sive printer. At £229,it is good value. 

A prospective buyer should, however, 
store up a good deal of patience before¬ 
hand for debugging the manual. ^ 



PCN DECEMBER 2219S4 


41 






































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PCN DECEMBER221984 























































AMEPLAY 



SPECTRUM 


GHOSTBUSTERS 

In the words of 
the soundtrack 
hit 'Bustin 
makes me feel 
good'. The film 
in question is 
Ghostbusters 
and in this inst¬ 
ance we’re talk¬ 
ing about the game of the film of 
the book of the. 

Copies often don’t work, but 
Activision has done a great job 
on this. The game sticks closely 
to the plot of the film, the music 
programming is simply bril¬ 
liant, and there’s even a few 
snatches of software-created 
speech. Add all that to some 
colourful, creative and slick 
graphics and it’s a winner 
If you haven’t seen the film 
yet, here’s the story. As the 
operator of a Ghostbustin' 
franchise you have to clear the 
city of a variety of spooks. To 
help, you have a ghostmobile, a 
team of three busters, and a 
variety of equipment including 
the marshmallow detector 
After buying your choice of 
hardware, you move to the 
main game screen — a bird's- 


• • /i i *« «« 

fS!fe Sifts > 

■ i l I 'I 1 I : 


cirv's pic rxrm: tm u<oo 


eye view of the city centre. As 
you cruise the streets your 
detectors will alert you to the 
presence of your enemy. 

You need to plot the shortest 
route to the scene, preferably 
passing a few roaming spectres 
on the way. The view switches 
to a close-up of your ghost- 
mobile. If you’ve bought a 
vacuum cleaner you can suck 
up the stunned roamers on the 

v. you arrive at your 
destination, the view changes 
again, this time to a 3D screen of 
the action where you confront 
the spook and — hopefully — 
ensnare it in your ghost trap In 
doing so you earn a bounty. 


Miss the ghost and you’ll be 
slimed ... a fate worse than 
death. 

The aim of the game is to earn 
more than your starting allow¬ 
ance of SIO.OOO, but there's 
more to it than that. The ghosts 
that evade you congregate at a 
particular building. When 
enough of them get there they 
form ... the marshmallow 
man, a sort of King Kong of 
confectionery. He stomps on 
large buildings and the damage 
he does is deducted from your 
bank balance. 

If, however, you can drop 
some ghostbait in time, the 
spooks ignore the call of the 
marshmallow and you earn a 


handsome bonus for averting 
the catastrophe. 

The time measurement in the 
game is the city’s PK (psycho- 
kinetic lenerp- Each spook you 
fail to bag increases the PK 
level by 300 points. 

As the level rises, the rate of 
increase rises too, and even¬ 
tually the action becomes fast 
and furious as you race to stun 
the roamers, trap the slimmers 
and avert marshmallow des¬ 
truction all at once. 

You also have to keep an eye 
on your equipment. Ofen you’ll 
have to return to GHQ to 
replenish supplies. 

The single flaw in the game is 
that the final confrontation, 
instead of being a fitting cli¬ 
max, is a flop. 

However, the sheer fun of 
getting there more than makes 
up for this. 

There’s no doubt that Ghost- 
busters (the film) will be one of 
the cinema smashes of this 
Christmas. I don’t doubt that 
Ghostbusters (the game) will be 
an equal hit in the software 
stores. It’s worth buying for the 
soundtrack alone — it will 
make owners of machines other 
than the 64 weep with envy. 

'Who you gonna call? .. . 
Ghostbusters!’ Peter Wortock 
Price £9.99 

Publisher Activision 0628-72448 


MSX 


You remember the old gag 
about the Japanese being no 
good at writing software? Well, 
if the first batch of MSX games 
to arrive in this country is 
anything to go by, the Japanese 
are going to have the last laugh. 
At just under £ 19 per cartridge, 
buying the stufTis liable to be a 
painful exercise, but most of it is 
good enough for distributor 
Micro Peripherals to end up 
with a winner. 

The ten games I saw were all 
produced by Konami, and each 
sported a handy Japanese-only 
instruction sheet. The names of 
the games are in English, as is 
any on-screen writing, and you 
also get the odd tantalising bit 
of English on the packaging, on 
the lines of ’(bit of Japanese 
here) Great! Farout!’and’I love 
(more Japanese) Comic Bak¬ 
ery’. Fortunately you can work 
out most of the controls by a bit 
of trial and error. 

There are several notable 
pieces in the collection, my 
personal favourite being 
Antarctic Adventure. It’s not an 
adventure as such, unless you 
happen to be a penguin. I’ve 
noted that very few of PON's 
readers are penguins (their 
stubby little wings can’t turn 
the pages). 

The idea of the game is to 
skate around the edge of 
Antarctica within a time limit. 


You get a screen display show¬ 
ing you, the penguin, skating 
along a downward scrolling ice 
floe. As you skate you’re con¬ 
fronted by a series of penguin 



perils — crevasses, black ice, 
polar bears, etc, which you can 
skate round, jump over or bash¬ 
fully bump into. 

In the latter case it just slows 
you down, as this is a blood-free 

E rne, but it’s worth falling 
wn the odd crevasse so you 
can observe the animation of 
the penguin scrabbling back 
up. I’m not sure about the 
difficulty level of this one, but I 
found it so funny to watch I 
didn’t really care. 

But enough of this frivolity— 
come with me through the pain 
barrier, to an Olympic effort of 
Wagnerian proportions (or vice 
versa). The pain barrier in 
question is what happens when 
you spend around £70 for Track 
and Field 1 and 2, Hyper Sports 
1 and the peculiar little two- 
button joystick thingummy 
that goes with them. 

These are Decathlon writ 
large, and again the animation 


is superb. The idea is to score a 
qualifying time in a number (a 
large number, I suspect) of 
Olympic events. I say ’suspect’ 
because I ran into a little bit of 
bother in the gymnastic event. 

This consists of a short run 
up, a mat then a horse (gymnas¬ 
tic, hay-stuffed rather than 
hay-eating variety). The two 
button joystick thingummy 
(TBJT hereafter) has Run 
marked on one button and 
Jump on the other, but no 
matter how I ran and jumped 
the little figure always stopped 
at the mat, scratching his head, 
and the word ’foul’ appeared on 
the screen. Next time I play I’ll 
look to see if someone in the 
crowd’s throwing beer cans. 


IHP" 1 * )• —1 

M 

Ik hi 



The other events were a little 
easier. Sprinting uses the same 
techniques as Decathlon, where 
you waggle the joystick to move 
your leg, but the TBJT means 
this is a lot easier, as you just 
have to rattle the run button. I 
was particularly taken with the 
high diving, where you bounce 
up and down on the board then 
twirl your way into the water. A 


bad dive has your athlete sur¬ 
facing rubbing his head (con¬ 
cussion?) while after a good one 
he waves his arms in triumph. 

But overall I’d be dead chuf¬ 
fed ifl got this lot in my stocking 
this Christmas — note to Micro 
Peripherals: please phone for 
my stocking size. 

You might think Athletic 
Land came out of the same 
mould, but it doesn't. It’s 
actually a neat implementation 
of the one where you control a 
small boy jumping over barrels, 
hopping over crocodiles and 
swinging on creepers through a 
dangerous park. 

Circus Charlie is more origin¬ 
al, but uses similar techniques 
to hop through fiery hoops and 
the like. Comic Bakery is not in 
fact misleading — that’s 
actually what it's called, and is 
worth a look, while Monkey 
Academy is an entertaining 
stab at educational program¬ 
ming. 

Finally, we come to the gol¬ 
den turkeys. Time Pilot is a 
tedious and relatively slow 
arcade game — it wouldn’t be 
worth paying a fiver for a tape, 
never mind £18 for a cartridge. 
Super Cobra is also pretty naff 
— Defender in a helicopter, 
basically—but these two apart, 
Konami looks like a company 
worth watching. 

John Lattice 

Price £18.98 Publisher Micro 
Peripherals 0256-473232 




PCN DECEMBERS 1984 


43 





































IF YOU WANT THE BEST THIS CHRISTMAS 


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FITTED WITH A SAGA1EMPEROR KEYBOARD 


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FREE ‘6’ PACK SOFTWARE INCL. 
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• DUST COVER £4.95 

• CARRY CASE £26.95 

• EXTENDED CABLE £9.50 


PLEASE SEND ME 

□ Spectrum 48K with SAG 1 Emperor keyboard fitted. 

□ Dust cover □ Carry case 

□ Extender cable □ Sound booster 

I enclose cheque/P O. for. 

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LET OUT THOSE SOUNDS with a 

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programs 































FRENZY 

If you’ve always wanted to leap 
on a Lepton then this could be 
just the game you’ve been 
looking for, though don't be 
misled by the frantic title as it’s 
a slightly more sedate game 
than Frenzy might suggest. 

Leptons are deadly sub¬ 
atomic particles that have 
escaped from a high security 
research lab. There they are, 
bouncing around in the middle 
ofyourscreen.. or at least, one 
of them is. 

The game is a kind of cross 
between Snake and Breakout, 
where the little line that is a 
Lepton hits the walls of the 
screen and bounces back at the 
appropriate angle. 

You control a robot crall that 
can gl ide around the sides of the 
screen and then, when you 


GUZZLER 

Take care, the frobblies are out 
to get you. Yes, frobblies, and if 
you want to know what they are 
you’ll have to play the game 

You are the Guzzler who has 
to move round a maze, collect¬ 
ing keys which will gain you 
entrance to cells which are full 
of food. Once you’ve eaten the 
food you need the assistance of 
Deflator Denis to help you slim 
down otherwise you won’t get 
through the narrower areas pf 
the maze. 

You can only meet Denis on 
the border, but do take care as 
he’s a little two-faced and if you 
should bump into him while you 


press the fire button, travels 
around inside the screen. It 
leaves a trace behind it, and if 
the Lepton hits this trace you 
lose one of your three lives. 

If you reach another edge, or 
simply move round to meet up 
with your own trail, the en¬ 
closed area is painted in. By this 
means you can gradually edge 
in on the bouncing Lepton and 
hope to trap it in one part of the 
screen. 

You kill a Lepton by closing it 
in like this, or simply by filling 
in 95% of the total screen area. 
Once you start fl II ing the screen 
in, however, it gradually be¬ 
comes more and more difficult 
to predict which way the Lepton 
is going to bounce, and the 
likelihood of a collision in¬ 
creases. 

There is a joystick option as 
well as keyboard control. Your 
craft has two speeds at which it 
can move, slow or fast, and you 

are slim he kills you. 

Unfortunately, as with all 
these games, your life isn’t 
meant to be easy. The frobblies 
have an obvious dislike for 


the two by 
pressing the fire button or space 
bar when stationary. 

The game becomes more com¬ 
plicated as you progress up 
through the different levels 


|® Ef9 h F^j 

tU 



ERBERT 

I was just beginning to think 
that good graphics in Amstrad 
games weren’t possible, when 
along came Er*Bert. I don’t 
know why no-one has yet pro¬ 
duced more than rather chunky 
graphics, but it’s obviously 
possible, and the figures in 
Er*Bert are in fact quite sprite¬ 
like. 

As you can guess from the 
title, it’s basically Q*Bert. You 
control Erbert on his pyramid of 
cubes, and hop him about the 
cube tops to change their col¬ 
ours and, of course, avoid the 


(you have to start on Level One 
each time) because higher 
levels introduce the problem of 
Chasers, which move around 
the edges and along the trails 
that you create ... I imagine 
you can guess what happens if 
you meet up with one of the 
Chasers. 

On later levels there are also 
more Leptons, up to a maxi¬ 
points if you can reach him 
before Denis does. 

As an aid you are given five 
time bombs to blow up the 
frobblies, and yourself if you’re 
not quick enough. The idea is to 
drop a bomb with the fire button 
and then run. Hopefully, the 
bomb will halt the pursuing 
frobbly and allow you to run 
past him. Extra bombs are 
gained every three screens. 

You can earn extra lives 
throughout the game depend¬ 
ing on the number of points you 
have gained There is a facility 
to change the points needed 
before you gain a life and you 
can also change the time lapse 
on the time bombs, and the 
number of guzzlers you start 
with. 

There are ten levels, each of 
which can be played at fast or 
slow speed, and you can select 
your starting level. 

The colours are well-chosen. 


CURSE OF THE FLYING 
PYGMIES 

Let’s make one thing quite clear 
straight away. PCN does not 
discriminate in any way 
against pygmies. Good luck to 
’em, we say. Fair shakes for 
pygmies is our watchword. 

PCN DECEMBER221984 


guzzlers and will do all they can have gained. There is a facility 
to prevent you filling up to change the points needed 

Ifyou manage to eat your way before you gain a life and you 
through four food cells a 'letter can also change the time lapse 
on legs’called Bonus Barry will on the time bombs, and the 
appear, and yes, you’ve gues- number of guzzlers you start 
sed, he will give you bonus with. 

bouncing balls, Coily the snake There are ten levels, each of 
and, in this version. Boris the which can be played at fast or 
ape. There are two rotating slow speed, and you can select 
disks which you can use for your starting level, 
transport from level to level. The colours are well-chosen. 

but take care not to leap off into - 

the void. 

Erbert is a large, purple, 
trumpet-nosed creature who 
can jump up or down and left or 
right. It takes a little while to 
get used to the controls and this 
isn’t helped by the fact that you 
can’t choose your favourite 
keys. I 

At the top left of the display the figures move very nicely 
there’s a message which shows indeed and there are no attri- 
you the colour you’re aiming for bute problems Let’s hope the 
and extra points can be gained quality of the graphics will 
by nicking Boris’s banana, inspire other programmers to 

Flying pygmies are another matter. And flying pygmies 
that masquerade as Portuguese 

Mi'!.' 1 W.ir m low -luidm-l 

■ software productions are 

■ H beyond the pale. 

3 There are four screens to 

H-. --M&. ■ cross to reach the Diamond of 

■ H Death; each is seeded with 

■ ■ lethal obstacles, and if you hit 

anything stationary, that costs 
you a life as well. The provision 



mum of five Chasers and five 
Leptons, though as far as I was 
concerned this remained a 
theoretical maximum. 

The game becomes quite 
absorbing after a while, but I 
think it would have been im¬ 
proved if the option to play at an 
even faster pace were included. 
The fast speed of your own robot 
is still quite slow. 

There are also too many very 
lengthy waits between games. 
Even though the graphics on 
these interludes are beautiful ly 
smoothly done, they have you 
tapping your finger in impati¬ 
ence for the next game. 

Not a bad game, but only 
fairly frenzied. 

MikeGerranl 

£ Rating 8 10 

# Price £7.95 

m Publisher Micro 

^ j Power 0532-434006 

The maze alters after every 
screen, making the game less 
monotonous than it would be 
otherwise. The number of frob¬ 
blies alters after every three 
screens and they also tend to get 
a little more energetic. 

The graphics and music are 
only average for the Commod¬ 
ore, though you do get a short 
rendering of ’Nobody does it 
better’ if you get on the score 
table. 

Those of you who eryoy Pac- 
man may find it difficult to put 

away. Susan Cooke 


I nterceptor Micros 
J 07356-71145 _ 

make more of the Amstrad’s 
undoubtedly good facilities. 

There isn’t really very much 
to the game — mind you, there 
never was. But it’s a pity 
Microbyte didn't add a few 
extras to take the game beyond 
its basic format. Even so. 
Er*Bert is a competent version 
of the game which, old- 
fashioned and crude by today's 
standards, still deserves a place 
in your games collection. 

Bryan Skinner 


of lives is generous, which is 
more than you can say about the 
provision of points of interest in 
this game. 

Enough said David Guest 

X Rating 4.10 

Price £5.95 Publisher 

Electric Abacus 
0372-376072 




LETS GET GOWN TO BUSINESS 


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VAT MANAGER is available in standard form which works with ZX ,W and Alphacom 32 column 
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of Gross/Net values input. VAT can be analysed under defined classifications. 



STOCK MANAGER — (Available in Plus 80 form only) — provides a controlled stock accounting 
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SOFTWARE PRO-TEST: COMMODORE 64 


S ound production may be one of the 
Commodore 64's most powerful 
features, but realising the compu¬ 
ter’s potential as an electronic music 
synthesiser is notoriously difficult. The 
Sound Interface Device (SID), precisely 
because of its sophistication, is compli¬ 
cated to use. Music Master is the latest of 
several programs which help you make 
the most of the 64’s sound. 


SOUND 

SHOW 


The program uses a screen-based 
keyboard, so users are likely to learn 
something about music as they work 
through it. Packages such as Musiccdc 
tend to use more complex display s, so the 
music learning in these may be confined 
to more abstract aspects of sound. 

Musical information is entered with 
just a few keystrokes, using a form of 
musical notation which can be easily 
learned and understood — even by the 
least musical. This basic information is 
extended with parameters which control 
the frequency, volume, waveform and 
enveloping of the notes. 

Music Master allows you to enter 
reasonably long pieces of music — up to 
about 1500 notes — using all three 
voices. Naturally, you can save such 
sequences to tape or disk for future 
playing or editing. They can also be 
stored in a way that allows inclusion in 
your own Basic programs. The manual 
has a section on Basic interfacing, with 
an example program. Data is saved in a 


Music Master claims to turn your 64 
into a synthesiser. How easy is It t o 
use, asks Russell Jones? 

sequential file, but only a reading list is 
given for getting polyphonic sound. 

Special effects include synchronisa¬ 
tion, ring modulation, gate control, 
filtering, and detuning. Voice three can 
be used to modulate notes by disconnect¬ 
ing it from the sound path while still 
generating its waveform and envelope. 
Modulation is achieved by copying the 
contents of voice three’s SID registers 
into the frequency, pulse width and 
cut-off registers for voices one and two. 
Such techniques give access to a wide 
range of tonal qualities and you can 
spend hours experimenting. 

Presentation 

The tape-based package comes with a 
couple of sample tunes, but the disk 
version has over ten complex pieces of 


MUSIC MASTER 



JT3^ 




There’s a fairly comprehensive, 31- 
page booklet, which details all Music 
Master's features and their use. The four 
appendices include a summary of com¬ 
mands and options, background 
rhythms, a glossary and suggestions for 
setting up sound effects. However, the 
booklet doesn’t really do justice to the 
power of the program. For instance 
there’s no index and some readers may 
think there's too much detail, too soon. 
There’s nothing on music theory, and too 
littleon converting sheet music to Music 
Master data. 

In use 

The heart of the program is the keyboard 
display. This is a standard piano layout 
and allows you, for instance, to select the 
octave for each note. 

All you do to enter the notes is press 
the keys which correspond to the notes 
shown. A mark appears on the relevant 
piano key and the note is played and 
stored. The display is clearly laid out and 
easy to grasp, even in black and white. 

The useful help facility directs you to 
the features available. One such is the 
ability to load already-defined musical 
sequences for playing and/or editing. 

Each note can be produced through 
any of the 64’s voices and there are ten 
preset sounds, such as flute, electric 
piano, clarinet and drum. These may be 
altered to create different sounds and 
the new preset values saved to disk. 
There are options which allow you to test 
out the effects of varying such aspects as 
its attack, frequency, or decay. Voices 
two and three can be used to play 
background music for auto-rhythm 
accompaniment. 

There are 17 preset sounds for each of 
the two channels, including 8-beat 
hi-hat and snare, Rock/Latin bass drum 
triplet arpeggios and Samba snare. 
Tempos may be altered and the 18th 
accompaniment may be configured 
according to taste. 

Verdict 

An awful lot of thought and work has 
been put into Music Master. The im¬ 
pressive examples on disk give a good 
idea of its power and scope. But what a 
pity the documentation doesn't match 
the same high standard. It plunges 
beginners in at the deep end and its 
generous detail can just make it hard to 
find information. 



BBC B software for sale includes Frak, 
Football-Manager, Jet-Pack. Lesion 
and The-Hulk (All original > All for 
£27 50 Send SAE to: Terry B , 52 
Eaatdown House, Amhurst Road. 
Hackney , London E8 2AT 
BBC original software large range at 
good prices. Gaines include Elite, 
Millionaire. Bug Blaster, Arcadians 
etc Tel: 0966 32830 for list and prices 
Wanted joystick for BBC B Also Multi 
Standard Modem required 120075 
300.300 1200(1200 Tel: 0833 50307 
anytime 

BBC disk dtWa, single sided 200K HOT, 
inc case, leads. £85 Tel: 01-699 3426 
evenings or 01-486 5811 X6535 day- 


Croaker. 737 Flight Simulator, £3 
each; Elite £6 and others Tel: Isle of 


chip Software £60. books £30, only 
used once Total value £890 Bargain 
price £550 ono Tel 01-952 3891 
BBC Model B software for sale or swap. 
Titles include Elite. Frak!. Pole Posi¬ 
tion, Robotron, Aviator, Blagger and 
Son ofBlagger. Tel: Canterbury 102271 
58529 

Wasted BBC welcome cassette tape, also 
information on DFS and FNS ROMs. 
Tel: 0705 327940 or Presto! Mailbox 
No 705372527 

BBC Medal B 32K OS 1-2. unused, new 
in box. no manual. Tel: Terry 01-670 
4006 and make me a sensible offer 
(With tape recorder.) 

Acorn Atom 12K, floating point, ROM 
books^liu software Tel: 01-6485508. 

Swap BBC software tape or disk. Elite. 
MrWix, Wallaby. Pole Position. Frak 
plus many top titles Tel: 041-334 2166 
after 6pm. Steven 

Acam lOOK disk drive Cables + utility 
disc - software. £100. East Sussex 
Tel: 0435 882540 evenings. Ask for 
David. 

WCCS Paacsf-T ROM for the BBC micro 
with manual and instructions Half 
price, £25. Also Acorn DFS ROM. £15. 
Tel Martyn on 01-670 1984 evenings 
□actroa rial 1 interface and voltmace 
3B joystick, still boxed. £55 ono. Tel: 
George 0436 6336 

BBC Modal B. 1.208 Good condition. 
£280 ono. Cumana 100K disk drive .+ 
PSU + cables, etc. £90 ono Tel Jason 
on 091-273 9558 

BBC B Acorn I)F5, TEAC 40 80T disk. 
Raven 20. Solidisk 16K sideways 
RAM. Speech synthesiser, accoustic 
modem. Word wise, graphics ROM + 
lots more. £750 ono Tel 01-506 0083 
BBC “V for sale. 1 20'S, also shado 

Computer Course" in binders, vgc. 
£320 ono Tel: 40245 ) 357492 after 

bLc B OS 1 20 (Wordwise i ROM. 3 
joysticks (professional! type, loads of 
software, data recorder, interface for 

C ter etc, books, mags, exchange for 
Commodore 64 outfit. Tel: Keith 
0900 65614 


PCN Billboard 


r_v. 


enters Hsipkaa. Have you prob¬ 
lems to be solved or solved problems? 
Write to: 112 Stockley Road. Barm- 
I ston, Washington. Tyne and Wear 


C Acorn DFS 0.9 chip for sale, £15 


modem 1000 pit 
software. £55 on 
(Boughton, Kent) 


rifrinal). £20. Priam 
i BBC cables and 
. Tel: 0227 751100 


C8M 64 software originals for sale. 
Black Hawk. Caesar. Manic Miner, 
etc. Most half price Wanted: The 
Quill, will swap Hobbit. Solo Flight, 
etc Tel 061-682 5024 after 7 
C on a asdor e 64, Pixstik light pen ♦ 
game cassette. £18. Introduction to 
Basic Part I. £10. Tel: Keynsham 
(Avon168616 eves 

C sa n asdera 64 software Zork I. Sus¬ 
pended. Ultisynth 64. £7 each. 
Planetfall £20. no swaps. Tel: Doncas¬ 
ter 10302161672 after 6pm. 

C sa n asders 64 software wanted to 
swap, many titles available. Wnte 
with program list to Mick at 146 
Andover Road. Rest wood, Notting¬ 
ham NG5 5GA. 

VIC-20, boxed, hardly used. plus "Intro¬ 
duction to Basic", Part I. book and 
database. £45only. Tel: Peterborough 
241943 evenings or weekends. 

C »—sders 64. I m a Swedish boy who 
wants to swap games. Tve got over 500 
programs. Send a list to Nils Genell, 
Tenngjytarevagen 6. 24 500 Staffan- 
storp.Sweden 

C ss—odsre 64 software includes word 
processor, database, bank manager. 
Space Shuttle, Fruit Machine. Tank 
Atak plus others. £27 the lot. Tel: 
Nottingham 383722 
VIC 26 C2N cassette, joystick, intro to 
Basic 1 k 2. dustcover. 16K switchable 
RAM, 2 books, mags, over 100 games 
boxed. £ 110 ono Tel Derek 950 0685 
Commodore Vk 20, C2N cassette. 6-slot 
expansion module. Intro to Basic Part 
I and d us trovers. £80 ono Tel: Slough 
71169 evenings and weekends 
Comamdore 64.C2N cassette deck, over 
£100 of original software, lots of mags 
and a games programming book, all 
boxed, only £200. Tel: 01-207 1806 
C8M/M 3032, computer, integral 
screen, typewriter keyboard, easily 
upgraded' to 4032 if required. C2N 
cassette unit, software, etc Bargain at 
£ 195 Tel: 0244 675717 (Chester) 
C smm.ds re Joystick. Le Stick £10. 
Suncom Slarfighter £7. including 
postage, all as new Suitable Commod¬ 
ore 64, Vic 20, Atari computers. VCS. 
Tel: 01-341 0464 evenings 
C ommodore 64 software to swap Wnte 
to: Hans Perseon, Hyacintvagen 9. 
S 590 62 Linghem. Sweden. All Tetters 
answered 

C ommodore 64 educational software 
wanted urgently for my children, ages 
3-9 Tel: Peterborough <0733)61685 
CBM 64 plus Simons Basic, joystick, 
over £320 software. £50 books. C2N 
cassette, mags. etc.. 2 months’ guaran¬ 
tee left. £290 ovno. Tel 01-863 5113. 
ask for Dee pa k 

CBM 64 Zaxxaa, Arabian Nights. Pole 


Position, BC’s Quest for tires, and 
many more to swap or sell. Tel: 
(Manchester1061-445 1126 
VIC 20. as new. cassette deck, joystick, 
four cartridges, numerous cassettes, 
manual, all boxed, plus magazines, 
£70. Tel Ascot 26786 after 6pm 
Vk 20 onginal software for sale: 
Matrix. Ski-run. Space Ph reeks, 
Night Crawler, Jungle. Scramble. 
£3 50 each All less than half pnee 
Tel: 0227 458529 

Software for CBM 64 to swap. Games are 
Arabian Nights, Spriteman and Arca¬ 
dia Also CBM 64 games book. £3 Tel: 
01-808 4684 after 4pm, ask for Errol. 
Eureka tor C8M 64 to sell or swap Sell for 
£10 or swap for Summer Games Tel: 
01-808 4684 after 4pm Ask for Errol 
C ommodo re 3032 computer with 3040 
dual disk unit and 3022 printer. All 
vgc, assembler software, bargain, 
£600 Tel: Brighton (0273) 771577 
after 7pm. 

CBM 64 games for sale or swap. Please 
send your lists of games to Neil 
Reynolds. 55 Learn Crescent, Solihull, 
West Midlands B92 8PB 
C immidsre 64 games to swap, over 350 
titles. Tel: 01-904 0667 or wnte to 
Sanieev Shah. 17 Windsor Crescent, 
Wembley Park. Middlesex HA9 9AV 
Vk 20—£55. Recorder —£25 £120 Soft¬ 
ware—£85. 16K—£25 Programmers 
aid—£25. Introduction to Basic—£10 
Quickshot 1—£7 Books—£7 Whole 
lot £199 Tel: 021-454 0234 
CBM 64 software to swap, well over 100 
titles, send vour full list to Geoff Lord, 
50 Moseley Road. Burnley. Lancs 
BB11 2RF 

Vk 26, C2N. switchable RAM joystick, 
software, books, magazines. £ 150 ono 
Apply to Paul Fraser, 186 Norwood 
Road. Norwood Green. Middlesex UB2 
4JT. 

CBM 64 Baskak B disk and manual, 
£40 Tel: 0932 241242 
Vk 20, cassette unit. 32K RAM 
(switchable). Commodore and Quick- 
shot II joystick, books, games worth 
£150, all worth more than £450 Tel: 
01-452 2716 for details and price, ask 
for Barrett. 

C ommodore 64, as new with C2N 
cassette recorder and six games and 
joystick, £175. Tel: 01-672 3795 
CAM 64 software sate. Hover Bovver. 
Chinese Juggler. Purple Turtles. Fal¬ 
con PatrolTblackhawk, Quintic War- 
nor. Cease! the Cat. £3.95. Not copies. 
Tel Greg on 01-736 9914 or 01-731 
3017 

CBM 64 software, »w a p 11 Amencan ♦ 
British. Send your list for mine to 
Jeffrey Batty. 29 St Martins Close, 
Clacton-on-Sea. Essex. Tel: Clacton 
431067 evenings 

CBM 64 software for sale. 14 onginal 
tapes. 3 cartridges and 4 books Cost 
£ 170. sell for£!10ono. Tel: 0790 53161 
after 4pm 

CBM 64 s oftware to swap, choose from 
over 120. Send list to Neil Reynolds. 55 
Leam Crescent. Solihull. West Mid¬ 
lands B928PB. 

Otak software: < >ne on One Sports. £15. 
Zork I, £5 Aztec Challenge. £5 
Wheeling Wallie. £5 Quick sale Tel: 


01-533 2001. after 4pm. ask for Jason 
Scope 64 for sale. "The Gaines Desig¬ 
ner’. perfect for the games program¬ 
mer. excellent condition, sell for £8. 
Tel: Cannock (Staffs) 78633 after 4pm. 
CBM 64, C2N cassette, two good 
joysticks, user manual and £60 worth 
of software, virtually unused. £180. 
Tel: Nick on 01-323 3211 ext 305 


Brapaa plus Dream Assembler. Dream- 
bug Basicode and Bugdiver for only 
£65 Tel 01-986 2658 after 5pm or 

Drags!'' 32, itegk disk dries, Epson 
RX80T printer, black and white TV 
and software and books, £500 ono. Tel: 
01-805 3326 

tw ippteg Dragee software. Many popular 
games available including Chuckle 
Egg. Touchstone. Donkey King, etc. 
Over sixty title*. Tel: Matthew or 
Simon at Studley 2576 
Dragee 32, cassette writ, magazines, 
games, boxed as new. Worth over 
£287. swap for CBM 64 and C2N. Tel: 
Chns on 01-387 2553 evee 
Dragon original software fur sale. Kriegs- 
piel. Ugh!. £3 each. Juniors Revenge, 
£5. 8 Ball Pool. Chuckle Egg. £3 50 
each. Tel: Richard on Ramsbottom 
(070682)2025 

Dragon 32 excellent condition, one 
owner Over £150 software Dustcov¬ 
er. joysticks. magazines, six books, all 
leads. Complete with cassette recor¬ 
der. £170 ono Tel: 01-648 8545 
Dragon 32, excellent condition, two 
joysticks. 40 games, 20 Dragon maga¬ 
zines * books. £130 ono Phillip 
Bradbery, 17 Phelps Close. West 
Kingndown, Nr. Sevenoaks, Kent. Tel: 
West Kingsdown (047485) 3192 


Sharp MZ700, built in cassette. 18 
assorted tapes. 10 months old, £160 
ono K Watts. 9 Cross Road. Oxhey. 
Herts 0923 22578 

Sharp MZB6A software for sale: Kuma, 
Forth, Zen. Frogger, Defender. Aster¬ 
oids. new £112. asking £40 ono Write 
to P Dalby. 18 Bradwell Fold. Games- 
ley. Gl oasop. Derbyshire 
Sharp M780A including screen and 
cassette deck plus manuals, Basic, 
aaaembler. games etc. vgc. only £300. 
Tel: Plymouth (0752) 23362. 

Sharp MZBOK, 48K RAM. converted 
80-column. Xtal CP M version 2 23, 
Xtal Basic version 3.1c. Includes 
double precision Basic, single disk 
drive, software, books etc. £450. Tel: 
0793 824345 after 5 30pm 
Sharp MZBOK, hardly used, various 
programs, books, user notes. £220 ono 
or swap for BBC B printer, disk drive. 
Tel: Neil on 051-424 4938 evenings 
Sharp MZ700, extended Basic. Zen 
aaaembler disassembler. Chess, data¬ 
base, games. only 4 months use, £130 
ono Tel 01-7 49 j 166 
Bargain Sharp MZ700, built-in printer 
plotter. 4-colour, plus Pascal. Zen 
editor assembler plus software. £150 
ono Tel: 0742 471160 






Billboard Buy & Sell Form 





second-hand equipment and (almost) anything else you 





form on the left with a maximum of 24 words. Send the 
completed form to: 





Billboard, Personal Computer News, 62 Oxford Street, London W1A 
2MG. 





Note that we cannot guarantee that your ad appears in any 
specific issue, and that we cannot accept ads from 





commercial organisations of any sort. 

Your name:. 





Address:. 






Telephone:. 


48 


PCN DECEMBER221984 












Is the Information Revolution Passing You By? 


If you use an Apple, IBM, BBC or 
ACT micro then you could be 
missing out on the information 
revolution of the decade. Today 
there are literally hundreds of 
databases worldwide, which can 
be accessed by a microcomputer 
fitted with a Nightingale modem 
and using appropriate software. 
These data bases include Prestel, 
Micronet, Homelink, Telecom 
Gold, various 'Bulletin Boards' and 
massive American Databases such 
as 'DIALOG' and 'The Source'. 
Micros can also be used to send 
telex messages. 




A world of information is available to you 
now when you install the Nightingale 
modem from Pace. There are hundreds 
of thousands of 'pages' of data available 
on Prestel, free computer software on 
Micronet, homebanking facilities 
available with Homelink, Company facts, 
Educational information, magazine and 
news articles available with Knowledge 
Index and the ability to communicate 
with other micro users direct, or via 
'bulletin boards'. 

The Nightingale modem is only £136.85 
Inc. VAT. If you do not already have 
suitable communications software Pace 
can supply this complete with a manual 
and full installation instructions. 


JPACE 


PACE SOFTWARE LTD. 
92 NEW CROSS STREET. 
BRADFORD BOS 88S 
Tel 102741729306 
Telex 51564 


niGHTiriGflLE -The Modem 


By far the most versatile modem available, at the price, for 
either home or business use, Nightingale will enable your 
micro computer to send and receive data utilising an 
ordinary P.O. Telephone Line. It offers Prestel Viewdata 
baud rates (1200/75 & 75/1200) alongside 300 300 baud full 
duplex for communication 
between computers. 

The state-of-the-art modem _ 

chip technology employed in I X/CT0RY 

Nightingale requires minimum! 
support circuitry resulting in 
low power consumption, low 

cost, high quality and extreme! KNOYVLEDGF miAcw 
reliability. It also features a I 20 %<h„— * WDEX 
simple self test facility for 
easy installation. 

Nightingale complies with 
the vigorous specifications 
laid down by British 
Telecom and is fully BABT 
approved. 

"INFORMATION 
SHEETS AVAILABLE 
ON REQUEST" 

| To Pace Ltd., 92 New Cross Street, 

| Bradford BD5 8BS 

* Please supply 

In modems at f136 85 me. VAT & carnage 

| [ ] modems & software pack for BBC micro at C159. inc VAT & carriage 
| | modems & software pack for Apple II. lie at C279 inc. VAT & carriage 

I f _ ] modems & software pack for IBM PC* at f 269 inc. VAT & carriage 
| Q modems & software pack for ACT at C269 inc. VAT & carriage 

* Address . 

| Cheque enclosed f or please debit my Access Q- 

| BarclaycardQ - (Please tick) 



“Bringing tomorrow a little closer” 


L*: 


ih RS 232 interface 



















Rato: £12 per single column cm. Minimum size 3cm. Series discount available Also spot colour available. Mechanical Data: 
Column width, 1 column 57mm. 2 column 118mm. 3 columns 179mm. Copy Dates: 1(1 days prior to publication. 
Contact: Andy Flint or Anita Stokes. 


CHRISTMAS PERIOD OFFER 

ZX Spectrum, MAestro-ASM and l Itimon. 
The best editor'assembler and monitor 
package around. £6.95 each, £12.50 the two. 
A ms trad CPC464 MAestro-ASM. Full fea¬ 
ture cditor/asscmblcr Only £6.95. 

Microholics Anonymous 


_HJTS15 9BW 

0642-787389 
0642 785825 


Alan 800 XL Computer 
Idiskdrrveoniy £299.95 

Alan 1050 disk drive plus 

(worth C20)tor only . £169.95 

All prices mckiOa VAT 
ta* dwkvery - please land cheque* PO to 

DISK SUPPLIES (Dept. 03) 


SAVE £££’s!! 


Amazing prices on Spectrum, Q.L.. 
Commodore. BBC. Monitors. Printers, etc. 
E g. Q.L £379 00 
(Inc. p+p. VAT) 


Dove Communications 
Tel: 0621 891715 


PROVE TO YOUR FRIENDS 
THAT YOUR COMPUTER 
„ IS REALLY USEFUL 

^5 Plan than garden with our data bank on giants Sand 
£9 95 lor data bare -— 



c-rom 


Ml an 


SPECTRUM ALL INCL.£18.50 

UPGRADES (SPECTRUM).£32.00 

OTHER MAKES ALSO REPAIRED 
SEND SAE FOR LATEST PRICE LISTS 


CONTROL TOUR MICRO UNIQUE 

RcADOUtt "-ograms iStHN SfCRriSief COMVtRT 
MOOifV RfVEAl hidden lines Ideal MiCROORIVt 0ISK ORIVt 
companon PLUS Mien Code OtSASttNIUR. km M Coda 
ROM ere Pun HEAOtR RUHR lu* into about prog rams 
PlUSHUOtCOtCHUcomnan HUS StCRfT INFORkM 
- .... SfCURITV 


tnck — bow lo reverse them CASS £695 0IS* C9 *5 
MtCBOOMVE - £11 95 ASM BVPROOUCTS P 0 Bo> 510 
BIRMINGHAM 617KS 


44 44 44 44 44 44 44 44 ** 


PLAY THE GUITAR 
THE VDU WAY 

The easiest way to leam the guitar!' 
FOR THE ACORN ELECTRON BBC 
£5.00 including poet and packing to: 

LAKESIDE SOFTWARE 

42 TOQNMOUTM COURT. 
SCUNTHORPE. SOUTH.. 


I 


44 44 44 44 44 4444444* 

* oanue rn vm id coicunc 

It 

2“ Uangaitbo Nureenee. LlangtHSa. Tregaron 

Dytad ST25 •QGor^tu detiHs^hone 0(7-423 223 ^ 

*4444444444444444444 


EPSON TX/80B 

Dot matrix printer 

Traction toed 80-cck 125 cos Prints graphics 
and double width characters 

Our price Cl 79. 

M. K. MUSIC A COMPUTERS 


3V2 or 5V4 WINCHESTERS 


FOR 

GEMINI NASCOM, SUPERBRAIN, 
IBM. APRICOT, SIRIUS 
AND EPSOM COMPUTERS 

♦ ★ INTRODUCTORY SPECIAL OFFER ★ ★ 

5'/4* 10 MB VERSION £999 + VAT 

♦ OTHER CAPACITIES SIZES AVAIL¬ 
ABLE 

♦ FACILITIES FOR MOST COMPUTERS 
ON REQUEST 

TEL (0245) 57575 

For further details Secuncor delivery, back 
up support and HP terms available. 

mm 

29 Beeches Road, Chelmsford. Essex 
CM1 2RX 

VAT No 407090674 


CJ.M. 4:000 - 8.000 SERIES CUSTOM EPR0N 

LM u> pm your own special software routine, company name 
security code, t o Handier or look up table m the unused area 11 . 
tuock r starting* f05f (mu 564 bytes) ROM Ret 90146522 

-iSTOPKEvr • -- ——• ——- 


assured Stale it STOP KEY esabtt reqimed 
Send code detarts en*iSA£ and payment ol £14 95 etc VAT Ertrj 
copies (at tene o' order only I wrtti or wdhoul STOP KFY disable or 
STOP KEY disable only muon £10 00 each me VAT ‘ 


SUSS. 


ATT. CUSROM DEPT: Nywtronlct 
6 Tancred Road 
Luton. Beds. LU2 7XA 
0582 29874 

DEALER ENQUIRIES WELCOME 



50 


PCN DECEMBER221984 

































































MICRO COMPUTER EXHIBITION 

SATURDAY JAN 12th 

GREAT HALL CIVIC CENTRE, BROMLEY 


NEW miH USERS JOIN OPEN # STREAM 
£10 FOR 5 MACS TO: 

26 COLLEGE TO. BROMLEY BR1 IK 


LIFEBOAT 


IMS*. MM *M> TANDY V* U.M 

JRM COMPUTING SERVICES 

104 Bnssntl Slrnnt. Leicester LE2 3FA 


BLANK CASSETTES AND DISKS 

min>a« mhm«m 
CtkHkOt WDM* 
CMMIMMM 1MWQ7M 
CM. II Ur tt It IMlHOtM 

iW aao oausu s»Dtn*i density 'Ok.ru oo 

• COO W wNII* 

UK HOME COMPUTERS 


M.mol.ch 900 81 2 
' mtur* gam* Tumble down Towor 
M CHARNKAPZnow available C4.00 
la or C700 lor Iha two 


MMndSAE lor farther da 


SOLWAY 

SOFTWARE 


TEL: 0946 _ 

3846 n 



BOWKER BUSINESS SERVICES 

4 Chjomint LETCH WORTH. Htfls . SG63U8 
Tel. 14626 74457 


WANTED 

PERSONAL COMPUTERS 

all models bought for cash 

Morgan Camera Company 

160 Tottenham Court Road, 
London W1. Tel: 01-388 2562 


MONITOR QUALITY PICTURE 
Plug the modem 3 between television and 
any computer for a sharper steadier 
picture 

Send <29 95 ♦ £1.75 PAP to 

Solar Computer Products 
PO Boa 4, Monmouth, Gwent NPS 4QG 
Tel: 0600 860661 

Allow 28 day* for delivery 


BANISH LOADing PROBLEMS 


We are now 
the exclusive 
sellers of the 

EUNCA 



Can only be 
obtained from us 
It is now available for 
the tollowng computers — 

Spectrum, ZX81, Oric-1, Atmos, 
BBC. Electron. Dragon and Atom 
and still only El 4.99 inclusive 

We also sell the EUNCA Loud¬ 
mouth. A Spectrum sound ampli¬ 
fier for only £12.99 inclusive 

CELINA Software' " 
laslara Hat* lain lor tht SPECTRUM 
nUCAB Tilt only program you a* rvrr need lo< r^irmj) 

STOCK faMes U6J on tf yew Mock. aMh a running total 
or cask Mm ol * slot* Add and renew stock u 
wd CIS 60 tad. 

PROOCOST Evtr aondarad now to cakuiala Vm sating pnea id 
mi atm tfes program do«> rust mat taking into 
account your owmaads and ho* muen prow you 
awd Id matt CIS.MM. 

Celinaj _ 


AMSTRAD CPC464 

AMKHO fRACKWOOO - AOVENTURER EXTRAOBOINAIRE 

THE TRIAL OF ARNOLD BLACKWOOD 

CPC464 USER Oct 84 

ARNOLD GOES TO SOMEWHERE ELSE! 
THE WISE AND FOOL OF 
ARNOLD BLACKWOOD 


pc N on in 

Eacn Adronture C6 SO me ByRatumPodl CQsPOsto 

NEMESIS 

10 CARLOW ROAD. RIMiSTEAD, KETTERING. 
NORTHANTS NN14 4DW. 

Tel 0933823987 


SINCLAIR COMPUTER REPAIRS 

Fan. reliable repair* by experienced engineer*, 
having serviced Sinclair computer* unee the 
introduction of the ZX80. Our price t* inclusive ot 
all part*, labour, postage and VAT irrespective of 
fault. *No hidden charge*. “Whilc-you-wait »cr- 
vicc available Spectrum £ 1K 75 ZX8IE11.SO 16K 
Ram £V 95. Call or vend with cheque or P.O. to: 
T V Service* ot Cambridge Lid. French'* Road, 
Cambridge CB4 3NP Tel (0223) 311371. 

SPECTRUM ‘XiTmEMORY 
EXPANSION SYSTEM 
XK System Kit £15.95 Inc. VAT 
XK System Factory fitted £20.95 inc. VAT 


MAGICSTAR — Acrary criss-crossfruit mac) 

where the nudge and hold function* let you m _ 

the decision* An interesting quality game for the 
Commodore 64. Price £3.99 on tape. Send chcqi 
or P.O. to: 

BBS, 3 Woodilda, Gratna CAS 5ES 


SPECIAL CHRISTMAS BARGAIN 

SOLUTION 2: 


NO POWER Suppked with any mo o» socket* and Mad* 

ISscSfHwa NEWBRAIN SINCLAIR SPECTRUM 
INTERFACE I.OL. ETC 

Mhar sokitnrw, watch thia apace, or contact ue at 


lOCamphln Road 
CAMBRIDGE CB4 2NG 


LIQUIDATION STOCK 
IN FULL WORKING ORDER 
TWO COMPLETE 
APPLE PACKAGES 

APPLE II EUROPLUS 
APPLE II TWIN DISK DRIVE 
OUME SPRINT 5 DAISY WHEEL 
ITTSP20VDU 

at HR 

APPLE II EUROPLUS 
APPLE TWIN DISK DRIVE 
DIGITAL DEC WRITER IV 
ITT SP20 VDU 

at KM 
Fhaaaaaa 

an 01-254 4281 iDaytlmrl 


BASIC COMPILER 


____ Turns Basic Program* into 

r*4»v UK Machinr Coda* Rs vny etty to um and coma* 
complete *4h tug instruction* SWUM* tor ihcModd Bor Modal 

re or ordtr direct (post treat 

OaanFO orSM i 0 £17.95 

Disk ACK Data £19.95 

(40 80 TRACK) DEPT PCN 


Nottingham Nl 
Tel: (0602) 28 


COMPUTER SOFTWARE: 


Commodore 64. Vc 20. BBC. Atari. Dragon. 

Spactrum ZX01 Amstrad 

Special otter on Commodore 64 

New Releases for CBM 64 Spectrum. BBC. Atari. 

Dragon. Spectrum ZX81 

New releases tor CBM 64. Spectrum. BBC Every 2 

weeks —lust send S A E and we send you a new 

list every 2 weeks 

Altai CIO data cassettes 40p each 5 Cl5 data 
cassettes £2 40 5'.' floppy discs D skied - DL 
density £2 30 each or 5 lor CIO 

nuDe supouto 

Sand to M J f SBtwood. 91 OoTs *oe* 9»Mo n 
m Budd.ConrndSV(nSAf Toi (02914179 


SPECTRUM REPAIRS 

We expeniy repair Spectrums lor £15 inclusive ol 
parts laDour and return postage Spectrums 
upgraded to 46K tor £28 including post 
R. A. ELECTRONICS. 

SO Kimberley Rond. Lownstoft. Suffolk 
TEL (0902)86289 


EVERY NAN HOUSE 

77 OXFORD STREET, LONDON W1 

3000 aq ft-28.000 sq It 
£5 per sq ft 

Tel: 04868 29009-29991 23386 

R.E.C. 

116 HIGH STREET, 
GODALMING, SURREY 


LYNX 

Over 50 arcade games, adventures and ui 
program*, mcHtding software projects 

JET SET WILLY 

Lot 


MERRY 
CHRISTMAS 
TO ALL 
OUR 

READERS 


PCN DECEMBER221984 


51 


















































































underway. Our picture highlights a 
surprise guest appearance by Nich 
Alexander, Guild of Software Houses 
supremo, as an Ugly Sister. True to 
its thrifty image, Mastertronk is 
using only one Ugly Sister to keep 
production costs down. 


Probably because you realise 
that poet men are overworked at 
this time of year, you thought¬ 
fully didn’t send micro Christ¬ 
mas Carols in by the hundred 
after our suggestion two weeks 
ago. 

In fact, only Kevin Millyard 
responded, so we send particu¬ 
larly warm Season’s Greetings 
to him and tepid ones to the rest 
of you, with a vote of thanks 
from the Post Office workers. 

Here, to the tune of The First 
Noel, is a sample of his work .'It 
should be sung up and down the 
country, preferably in the 
privacy of a bathroom. 

Your new QL Sir Clive did say. 
Will be with you by the twenty- 
eighth day. 

But that day came and that day 


A nd sti 11 no m icro Sinclair sent, 
QL, QL, QL, QL. 

Where, oh where is my QL? 

On that high note we’ll sign off 
for the year. Happy Christmas. 
See you in 1985. 



Here'* something to turn your mind 
to when the National Anthem has 
finished at the end of the Queen's 


Mknmtec'i latest product, is dear¬ 
ly on the point of saying something 
memorable. What will K be? We 
invite you to send in suggestions to 
PCM at 62 Oxford Street, London 
W1A 2HG, and there will be £20 in It 
for the funniest The winner will be 
announced in issue 95. 


SYNTAX ERRORS 


OEL, maker of the Prism VTX 
5000 modem, has suggested a 
better way round problems 
when using it with a Spectrum 
and Interface 1 (issue 90). The 
company says you should con¬ 
nect all the equipment then 
power on from the mains socket, 
not by plugging the power lead 
jack into the Spectrum socket. 


NEXT YEAR 


Next year? What is this next 
year? In response to the staff s 
cries of 'Give us a break, guv,’ 
the publishers of PCN have 
decreed that there will be no 
issue to distract you from the 
Boxing Day football program¬ 
me on December 26. We’ll be 
back on January 2,1985 with... 
Father time 

Age shall not wither it . . . the 
Sinclair defies time’s winged 
chariot by still going strong. We 
take a retrospective look at this 
great survivor. 

High office 

Database Software offers a 
Lotus equivalent on the BBC 
forjust £5.95—could it possibly 
not give you your money’s 
wor th? 

BBC among apples 

Kick-off the new year with this 
fresh-fruit cocktail of a game for 
the BBC micro. 

Amstrad at the double 

Give your Amst rad a character¬ 
building exercise with a utility 
to double their height. 

Spectrum break 

Guard your Spectrum prog¬ 
rams against those inconve¬ 
nient interruptions with this 
anti-break device. 

Penpal 

Cast your eyes over a full 
pro-test of the Penman Plotter. 




went 

1 _ L _ := - '1 -- - U 

PCN DATELINES 

Event 

D«tet 

Venue 

Organisers 

CADCAM Inti Show 

Jan 8-10 

NEC. Birmingham 

EMAP Inti Exhibitions. 01-837 3699 

Mini/Micro Computer Exhbn Conf Jan 13-16 

Stockholm, Sweden 

Sollentuna Massan. Box 174, S — 191 23 

Sollentuna, Stockholm 

Which Computer? 

Jan 15-18 

NEC. Birmingham 

Clapp & Poliak 01-891 5051 

High Technology & Computers 
Education 

Jan 23-26 

Barbican, London 

Computer Marketplace Exhibitions. 01-930 

1612 

Computer Exhbn — Computer 
Thai 

January 23-26 

Bangkok. Thailand 

Conf & Exhbn Management Services. Ltd. 

61 5 Langsuan Soi 2, Ploenduit Road, 

Bangkok 10500 

Inti Microcomputer Fair 

Jan 29-Feb 3 

Frankfurt. Germany 

Collins & Endres, 01-734 0543 

Apricot & Sirius Computer Show 

Feb 5-7 

Kensington Town Hall, London 

Paradox Group. 01-241 2354 

Inti trade show for home comps, 
software, etc — LET 

Feb 17-19 

Olympia. London 

Turret-Wheatland. 0923-777000 

Inti Computer Graphics User 
Show and Conference 

Feb 19-21 

Barbican. London 

Mountbuild, 01-486 1951 

MEXCOM 

Feb 25-28 

Mexico City, Mexico 

AESI Ltd, 01-379 7628 


ir Peter Worlock IX 


Nm ui it e rs Ralph Bancroft. Sandra Grandison Feature* editor John 
Cooke Program* editor Nickic Robinson Art director Jim Dannie Art #d 
PUBLISHER ( vndy Milan PuMnhnc auntant Tube Bendeth 
ADVERTISING: Croup advertising manager Peter Goldstein Advertheweot mar 

executive* Claire Barnes. Phil Bennon. Mike Blackman. Steve Comck, 
Tony O'Reilly Anita Stokes Production Richard Gaffre; * ' * “ 

Ixindon W1A 2HG 01 -439 4242 Editorial add rev 
3211 Published by VNU Business Publications, 
without written consent from the 


Dave Alexander Ai 


Harriet Arnold Editor 1 ! at 
Kenn Garmch Hi 
Tim Brown Layout artrrt Bruce Preston 


ura Cade. Claire Rowbottom Si 


part v 
Corns 


rail. Distributed by Seymour Press. 


Keefe. Andrew Flint. Christian McCarthy. Isabel Middleton, Sarah Musgrave. 
ffrev Advertisement assistant Jan Moore Subscription enquiries < Jill Stevens Saburipbos address S3 Fnlh Street 

__ _ Oxford Street Undon W1A 2HG. 01-636 6890 Advertising address 62 Oxford Street London W1A 2HG 01-323 

cations. Evelyn House. 62 Oxford Street London W1A 2HG © VNU 1983. No material may be reproduced in whole or in 
copyright holders. Photoset by Quickset, 184-186 Old Street, London EC1 Printed by Chase Web Offset. St Austell, 
ns. 334 Brixton Road. London SW9.01-733 4444 Registered at the PO as a newspaper 


PCN DECEMBER221984 
















































■ 




COMMODORE 64 




' 

.. ■ ■ . 

■ 


* 1 « 5 ? 


' 


■ 


5od Retailers 
















efcTMMTE 

PLRU THr GHMI 



48K SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM 


48K SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM 


"KNIGHTLORE", "UNDERWURLDE ", "SABRE WULF", and "STAEE OF KARNATH" recommended retail 
price £9.95 inc VAT. Available from W.H.SMITH, BOOTS. J.MENZIES, WOOLWORTHS and all good 
software retail outlets. Also available from ULTIMATE PLAY THE GAME, The Green, 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire LE6 5JU (P8rP are included) Tel: 0530 411485